m^M 



H\ 



^ff f' 



^ 



^^■"^M 



i*f. 






wn 



{?\ 



^xljife 






^'^iptv 



sv V 



^^W* 



^%J^ 



. -n: 








il 



.^^^1^' 



[^^ 



if* 



^^■;v- 






'/"'^^^ 






H^^S^hH 


nrirawsw^^^^ 


^M 






ffl 






-<m. 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. #| 



,/^ .=/(?., 



! UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $ 



caMi^l<- 





^"^ 




■^-., •■<:■•■_ 




«s 


< 
<:: 

c 




icL. -*^z:* 




f. yd 










llliilil 




-•' . 


<ZZ ' '— C3 


^my-^r^mtt 














«^- 



^^^ 



^ 



SQUASHES. 

HOW TO GROW THEM. 



A PEACTICAL TEEATISE ON SQUASH CULTUEE, GIVING FULL DETAILS 
ON EVERY POINT, INCLUDING KEEPING AND MARKETING THE CROP. 



BY 



JAMES J. H. GREGORY, 

MARBLEHEAD, MASS. 



i C' P ^ 

iOlH 
C_ NEW-YORK: 

ORANGE JTJDD & COMPANY, 



41 PARK ROW. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

OEANGE JUDD & CO. 

At the Clerk's Ofiace of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New-York. 



^^, 



^k^ 



a 



^ 



LovEJOT & Sox, 

ElECTBOTYPEES XSD STEKEOTTPBEa. 

15 Yandewater street N. Y. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The recent great increase in interest in squash cultiva- 
tion, which has been promoted by the introduction of new 
varieties, has seemed to me to demand a more thorough 
and exhaustive treatment of the subject than is to be 
found in our present standard works on horticulture or 
agriculture. I am sustained in this position by the great 
number of questions propounded to me annually in the 
course of an extensive correspondence. To answer these 
questions; and to bring so delicious a vegetable as the 
squash into a more general and more successful cultiva- 
tion, is the object of this treatise. The Squash family ( Gvr 
curbitacecB) have their habitat in the tropics and warmer 
portions of the temperate zones ; hence they require our 
hottest seasons to develop them in perfection. With the 
exception of the Vegetable Marrow, the squash family is 
almost unknown to our English cousins, as likewise is true 
of our corn and beans, for though the average temperature 
of the year is higher with them than with us, yet the ex- 
treme hot weather, which these vegetables require, is 
there wanting. 

The introduction of the squash is a matter of the past 
half century ; until within that time, with the exception of 
the Crookneck, the pumpkins, yellow and black, or " nig- 
ger," were the only varieties cultivated. Though the ap- 
petite for squash appears to be in a considerable degree a 
matter of education, yet it is becoming more and more 
popular in the vicinity of the large cities of the North, 
where among vegetables, it now ranks next to the potato. 
3 -■ -- ■ 



4 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

WHAT IS A SQUASH? 

In many parts of the South and West, where the fall 
and winter squashes are not much cultivated, the term 
" Pumpkin " is used for all the running varieties of the 
squash or pumpkin family, with the exception of the 
" Cushaw " class, which includes varieties that are closely 
allied to the Crookneck. To clearly define what is meant by 
the word squash in contradistinction from the word pump- 
kin, as used among market-men, is no very easy matter, as all 
the varieties, with the exception of the Crooknecks, easily 
intercross with each other, and in the recently introduced 
Yokohama, I have reason to believe we have found the 
connecting link between the Crooknecks and other squashes, 
thus destroying the reputation which the Crooknecks had 
hitherto enjoyed of being the squashes of the squash fam- 
ily. Grouping all the running varieties together, we ex- 
press the marketman's idea of a squash, as distinguished 
from a pumpkin, when we say that all varieties having 
soft or fleshy stems, either with or without a shell, and all 
varieties having a hard, woody stem, and without a shell, 
are squashes ; while all having a hard stem and a shell 
the flesh of which is not bitter, are pumpkins ; and all of 
this latter class, the flesh of which contains a bitter prin- 
ciple, are gourds. In a more general classification, all va- 
rieties having a hard shell, are gourds, and those without 
a shell, are squashes. I had an amusing instance under this 
system of classification in a lot of seed, ordered from France 
as " gourds ;" on examining them, I found that several of 
the kinds were varieties of our table squashes. Making a 
separate classification of the summer varieties, I define 
such to be squashes, in contradistinction from gourds, as 
are eatable at any period of their growth. It will be seen 
that the distinctions I make are more commercial than 
strictly scientific. What I aim at, is, to so define squashes, 
pumpkins, and gourds, that experienced market-men, seed- 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 5 

men, and new beginners, may meet pn common ground, 
and clearly understand each other when using these terms. 
In passing, I remark, that gourds are far more prolific 
than either squashes or pumpkins ; in some instances more 
than two score having been grown on a single vine. 

SELECTII^G THE SOIL. 

All of the family thrive best, other things equal, in a 
warm soil, which is a soil through which the roots can 
easily find their way. The Hubbard squash appears to 
attain to its highest development in regard to both yield 
and quahty in a soil, that, in addition to being warm, is 
also a strong soil. I would not advise planting in a clay 
soil, unless it be possible by thorough draining and high 
manuring, (for this purpose, long manure is better than 
fermented,) to make such soil light and porous. A drained 
meadow will often yield enormous squashes, if well ma- 
nured, but they are apt to be very porous in their structure, 
of poor quality, and poor keepers. 

Some years since I planted a piece of rich, black 
meadow to Hubbards, after manuring liberally in the hills. 
The result was a tremendous growth of vine, some of 
the leaves measuring twenty inches in diameter, while the 
ends of the runners, in their great vigor, lifted themselves 
by thousands two and three feet above the surface, and 
with their blunt, arched extremities, looked like a myriad 
of huge-winged serpents running a race. The squashes 
were of a light green color, very large and showy, but, 
when gathered, proved light in the handling, very porous 
in structure, cutting like punk, were very poor keepers, 
and coarse and watery in quality. Though such meadows 
are thoroughly underdrained, the squashes grown on them 
are light in proportion to their size, (which always insures 
poor quality and poor keeping,) unless the meadows have 
had abundance of sand and loam worked into them, thus 



6 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

adding the proper proportion of silica to the vegetable 
humus. Some years ago, when the Marrow squash was a 
novelty, bringing about 14.00 a hundred pounds, one of 
my townsmen raised some acres on a piece of drained 
meadow. Only a portion of the meadow had received a 
good dressing of sand ; here the squashes were of about 
the ordinary size, while on the remainder they grew " as 
big as barrels." He traded a part of the crop with a 
peddler for a lot of swine. "When the peddler called for the 
squashes, agreeable to instructions, the father being absent 
from town, his son showed him the smaller sized lot, say- 
ing that he had received directions to deliver them, as 
they were the best of the crop. But the peddler declared 
that, as he had supplied good pigs, he was entitled to good 
squashes, and would be put off with no trash. He there- 
fore loaded his wagons with the " big as a barrel " lot, and 
left, for home. Before many days a friend called, and, 
with a laugh, asked if he had heard of the result of the 
squash investment. " There was'nt enough substance in 
them to hold together until he got home ; they were car- 
ried to market in a few days, and two tons out of five 
were rotten." If the soil be wet and cold, the growth of 
the vine is much retarded, and not only is the crop much 
lessened in size and weight, but at times this singular re- 
sult is seen — the squash loses its normal form. I have 
seen a crop of Hubbards grown under such circumstances, 
all of which were nearly flat at each end, instead of hav- 
ing the elongations that belong to the normal form. 

When two soils of equal natural strength, but one of 
them being more gravelly in its structure, are heavily and 
.equally manured, I have noticed, in several instances, that 
the more gravelly piece will give more squashes and less 
vine than the others. 

Unlike some varieties of melons and cucumbers, squashes 
will do finely on freshly broken sod, which has the ad- 
vantage (a great one in many localities) of being less in- 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 7 

fested with bugs, than old tillage soil. The practice of 
digging holes a foot or two in diameter in patches of turf 
in waste places, around hedges, or in corners of fields, 
which, after filling with manure, are planted to squashes, is 
but a waste of time ; the result is, a growth of vine of a 
few feet in length, the setting of squashes, and then both 
squash and vine become checked in their growth, as the 
roots of the vine make vain efibrts to penetrate a dense 
mass of hungry grass roots in search of food, the leaves 
gradually turn yellow, and before you know it, have 
entirely disappeared. By pulling on a dead vine, you 
drag out a half grown squash hidden among the grass. 

If the sod abounds in the pest known by various names, 
as witch, twitch, or quack grass, there is some danger that 
the grass will overrun the vines. If the grass has not 
been quite thoroughly torn up by the cultivator before 
the vines begin to run, better plow up at once, as the crop 
will be nearly a failure. Hoeing up and hand pulling the 
grass will practically amount to nothing under such cir- 
cumstances, as I once learned to my sorrow. K the sod 
is not very badly run to twitch, there is but little danger, 
provided the cultivator is faithfully used from the time 
the vines appear above ground until the runners begin 
to push. 

THE MANUKE. 

The squash vine is a rank feeder. Night soil, barn ma- 
nure, wood ashes, guano, muscle mud, hen manure, super- 
phosphate of lime, pig manure, sheep manure, fish guano, 
fish waste — either of these alone, or in compost, is greedily 
devoured by this miscellaneous feeder. The great error 
in the cultivating of the squash is to starve it. By many 
cultivators, when every other crop has had its share, and 
the manure heap has been used up, a piece of sod is broken 
for the squash patch, about the only food depended on 



8 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

for the crop being what it can gather from the decay of 
the fresh turned sod. Under such treatment, the crop is 
small, the squashes small, and the general result unsatis- 
factory. Another error of the opposite extreme is one 
often committed by market gardeners, who have learned 
that no paying crop can be grown without liberal feeding 
— who give all the food necessary, but do not allow suf- 
ficient room for the extra growth of vines under such cul- 
ture. Of this latter error I propose to treat under the 
head of "Planting the Seed." 

Night soil should be used, mixed with muck and other 
manures, in the form of a compost. It may, however, be 
applied fresh, directly to the hill, if sufficient care is taken 
to mix it thoroughly with the soil. Some years ago, I 
broke up a piece of land in the spring of the year for 
squashes, and the location being difficult of access, I used 
night soil from a vault on the premises, pouring about two 
bushels into each hill. After we had finished manuring, I 
sent my hired man, stout Jim Lane, around with his hoe 
to mix it thoroughly with the soil in the hills. When 
Jim came back, saying the thing had been thoroughly 
done, I send him around a second time, to give it another 
mixing up, and, on hi^ return, sent him around the third 
time, though the old fellow assured me that it couldn't be 
improved on, and I had no doubt he had done his work 
well each time, but, with two bushels of fresh night soil 
in each, I knew that all the danger lay in one direction. 
The result was, the vines came up a rich, dark-green, and 
took right hold of their food. 

With the exception of barn manure, it is necessary that 
each of the manures mentioned above should be well 
mixed in the soil when used in the hill. When wood 
ashes are used, they should not be mixed with other manure, 
until just as it is applied, as this would injure the value of 
the manure, by setting free the ammonia. When I have 
used ashes in connection with Peruvian guano, I have 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 9 

been in the habit of putting layer with layer in a wheel- 
barrow, hurrying it to the hills, and then covering it im- 
mediately with soil. Even with all possible hurrying of 
matters, the strong, pungent smell of the escaping am- 
monia could be readily detected. 

Wood ashes, mixed with fresh night soil in the hill, 
is considerably worse than nothing. Some years ago, 
aiming to grow some extra large specimens, I selected a 
favorable location, opened several large hills, and poured 
into each about a couple of bushels of night soil Into 
this I stirred a liberal quantity of wood ashes, acting on 
the theory that its alkaline properties would serve as a 
corrective of the rank crudeness of the night soil. I pull- 
ed the earth over the hills, and planted my seed. The 
seed vegetated, but the young plants soon came to a stand 
still. I applied a liltle fresh soil to the roots, thinking the 
manure below might be too strong for tbe young rootlets 
to absorb. Still, there was no growth ; soon the leaves 
turned yellow, and the plants died. I opened one hill to 
find the cause, and there I found cause enough in the 
presence of a mass having about the size and appearance 
of an ordinary grindstone ; the ashes and night soil in 
combination had made a hard cement, and the entire con- 
tents of each hill could be rolled out in one cake. 

HOW MUCH MANURE? 

Those who, under the stimulus of a city market, follow 
market gardening, soon learn one truth that may be set 
down as an axiom for successful gardening, viz. : that 
other things equal, it is the last cord of manure that gives 
the profits. There is but very little danger of giving too 
much manure to your squash ground, provided the hills 
are made at a proper distance apart, and the vines are not 
too numerous. 

No prudent man will plant squashes with less than four 
1* 



10 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 

cords of barn manure, or its equivalent, to the acre ; this 
is the minimum, — when squashes are raised as a profitable 
crop, from six to twenty cords of good manure per acre 
are used. 

Twenty cords -to the acre will, I doubt not, sound like 
a large story to many readers, and it is a large quantity, 
even for the high culture required for successful market 
gardening, but I liave seen that quantity applied, and 
once, in my own practice, applied thirty-five cords to a 
little over two acres of squash land, where the soil had 
been over-cropped, (or rather under-fed,) for many years 
before I came into possession of it. Let us look a moment 
into that axiom — " the profits come out of the last cord 
of manure." With four cords of good barn manure to 
the acre, on good soil, the average yield would be about 
four tons of Hubbard squashes ; with six cords of manure, 
the average yield would be about six tons ; with eight 
cords, the yield would be from seven to eight tons. These 
are real results, that I have had in my own experience. 
Here it will be seen that we gain about a ton of 
squashes with each e:^tra cord of manure ; in other words, 
by investing eight or ten dollars, we treble or quadruple 
our money in six month's time — quite a profitable bank 
of deposit is the manure heap ! ISTot only is the crop 
heavier, but the squashes are larger, and, therefore, far 
more marketable and, usually, at a higher figure, often 
readily bringing |5 or $10 a ton advance in the market. 
Nor is this all; the virtues of the ma"nure are not ex- 
hausted the first season ; but the ground is left in higher 
condition for the crops of the next season. Again, let it 
be noted that the cost of cultivation of a poor crop is just 
as great as the cultivation of a large one, while the promise 
of a large crop is a great cheer amid the labor of caring 
for it. The strongest argument for the liberal manur- 
ing of this and all other crops is, that a certain portion 
of the crop but pays for the cost of producing it, and 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 11 

that the profits can only come after the cost of production 
is paid. 

The cost of producing an acre of squashes, independent 
of the cost of the manure, will be : 

Plowing % 6.00 

Distributing Manure 5.00 

Cultivating in Manure 3.00 

Seed 4.00 

Mixing Manure in Hills 3.00 

Planting Seed 1.00 

Three Cultivatings in course of season 5.25 

Two Hoeings. 3.00 

Lime and Liming 1.50 

Hand-weeding of large, scattered Weeds, after* Runners liave 

started off 1.00 

Gathering of Crop into Heaps ready for Carting 2.00 

Interest on Land 9.00 

Wear and Tear, and Incidentals 2.00 

Total, exclusive of Manure $44.75 

Add cost of four Cords of Manure, at $8.00, landed in Field 32.00 

Cost of Guano, or some equivalent, to mix in Hills 5.00 

Total cost of Crop when four Cords of Manure are used per Acre. .$81.75 

Now, as we stated above, the average yield of Hubbard 
squashes, under such manuring, would be about four tons. 
The average price of Hubbard squashes in the Boston 
markets, for the past four years, of such a size as four 
cords of manure to the acre would produce, has been about 
125 per ton. At this rate, the returns (not deducting 
the cost of marketing) per acre would be $100, from which 
deducting the cost of production, $81.75, we have $18.25 
as the profits on the acre. 

K, now, by adding two cords more of manure, or $16.00, 
to the cost of production, we obtain two tons more 
squashes, then the income is increased $50, (this supposes 
that we get but the same price per ton, but, in fact, I get 
from $5 to $10 more per ton for such squashes,) and we 
have a profit of $52.25. The two cords of manure extra 
have nearly trebled the profits ; in other words, by ad- 



12 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

ding about one-six to the cost of production, we treble 
the profits. Or, again, to give a commercial look to the 
matter, for every dollar invested in manure in May, in 
October, or five months, we receive a return of three dol- 
lars and an eighth. The returns have proved in the same 
proportion up to eight cords, and at times up to ten cords, 
to the acre. These statements are not visionary ; they 
are drawn directly from practical experience^ and can be 
corroborated by any farmer who has tried liberal manur- 
ing. Catch a farmer of that class going backwards, and 
putting less and less manure on his grounds, what a 
phenomenon he would be ! No ; the progress of all enter- 
prising farmers is in one direction. By extra manuring the 
probabilities of receiving paying returns, are far greater in 
agricultural than in commercial life, as figures will readily 
show, though the popular belief is directly the contrary. 

PREPARING AND APPLYING THE IVIANURE. 

As a general rule in farming, the value of manures that 
are good for any crop, is increased by mixing them to- 
gether, making what is called a compost. Ashes and 
common lime are an exception to this rule; each of them 
sets free the ammonia, (the most valuable portion of any 
manure,) and, being volatile, it escapes into the atmos- 
phere. In preparing a compost for squashes, the bottom 
of the heap may be made of muck that has been acted up- 
on by the frost, sun, and rain of a year, if practicable ; if 
this can not be done, let it at least be got out the fall 
previous, that it may be disintegrated, and, in a measure, 
sweetened by the winter's frost. In the course of the 
winter, manure from the barn-yard may be hauled upon it. 
If this has been well worked by hogs, the better. Toward 
spring, if night-soil can be poured into it, the richness of 
the heap will be much increased. Sharp sand can now be 
thrown over the heap, and about as soon as frost breaks 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 13 

ground, the entire mass should be thrown over with forks, 
and thoroughly commingled, all coarse lumps broken 
up, and all frozen lumps brought to the outside of the 
pile. As soon as the mass begins to heat, the process 
should be repeated once or twice, until it is made as 
fine and as thoroughly mixed together, as time will allow. 
The sand will be found to be excellent to keep the manure 
finely divided and light, or to " cut " it, as farmers say. 

In applying the manure for this or other crops, many 
farmers use all the manure in the hill ; some, because hav- 
ing but little to use, they wish to get it as near the plants 
as possible, while others seem to hold the theory, that a 
circle of three or four feet in diameter is a sufficient area 
for the roots of squash vines to travel over in search of 
food. Where all the manure is used in the hill, the squash 
vines push over the ground rapidly, until just after the 
setting of the squashes, when they lose vigor, the squashes 
develop but slowly, and in the end there is a small crop of 
undersized squashes, for the roots, having meanwhile 
pushed beyon.d the hills, can not find food sufficient to 
sustain the growth of the vines. The roots of squash 
vines increase faster than is generally supposed. There 
is a theory that the roots grow to the same length as 
the vines, keeping pace with them in their growth. 
Whether the roots grow as long, or longer, than the vines, 
I can not say, but when the runner of a vine had pushed 
out but eighteen inches, I found the root over three feet 
in length, thus proving that at one period of growth, the 
root increases faster than the vine. This spreading of the 
roots through the soil is one of the marvels of vegetable 
life. I remember once lifting a small pile of litter that 
was about six inches deep, some dozen feet distant fi-om 
a squash hill, when I saw what appeared to be a fine 
mist at the surface of the ground, but upon examination 
myriads of fine rootlets were seen, that were doubtless 
feeding on the decaying vegetable matter. Any person 



14 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 

who will examine a squash vine of the running sorts, after 
it has set its fruit, will find roots pushed down into the 
earth at each. joint ; and though these may be in part de- 
signed by the Creator to steady the vine, there can be but 
little doubt but that they are designed also to feed the 
long runners. And this is proved by the fact, that if the 
connection of the vine with the main root be severed, 
while these subordinate roots remain uninjured, it will still 
maintain a degree of vigor. Such facts as these sweep 
all theories of hill-manuring by the board, for if the roots 
travel beyond the hill in search of food, there a wise cul- 
tivator will put food for them. My usual practice is this : 
to distribute all the manure from my compost heap over 
the field, after the first plowing^ and before cultivating or 
harrowing. This is thoroughly worked under (and but 
just under), by a small one-horse plow, driven at right 
angles with the furrows, after which I follow with the culti- 
vator, aiming to have everything as thoroughly fined up as 
possible. If time presses, I dispense with the small plow, and 
depend wholly on the cultivator and harrow to get my ma- 
nure under the surface. After the manure is well worked 
under, the hills or drills are marked off by dragging a chain 
over the surface, the first line being made straight by set- 
ting up two poles ahead, and keeping them in line while 
walking; afterward the lines can be kept conveniently 
straight by carrying a pole of the same length as the dis- 
tance desired between the hills, and using it occasionally 
as a guide. After the field is thus chained out in one 
direction, it is crossed in the opposite direction. The hills 
are marked out by the crossing of the lines made by the 
chain. If the surface is free from large rocks, the hills can 
be marked out by running two sets of furrows, the hills 
being made where they cross each other at right angles. 

In the hills I work in my manure, avoiding all stable 
dung, or any animal manure, as this is liable to contain 
seed, and to one who raises squashes for seed purposes, 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 15 

this is quite a serious objection, for, in fact, I have found 
it almost impossible to keep squashes pure, where animal 
manure is used in the hill. I manure in tlie hill, or drill, 
with the most highly concentrated manures to be pro- 
cured, such as guano, superphosphate of lime, or fish gu- 
ano. The reason for using highly stimulating manure in 
the hill is, to give the plants a quick start when young, 
that they may grow beyond injury from the ravages of 
the striped bug. 

There is danger in using highly concentrated manures in 
the hill, that the roots of the young plants be destroyed 
— " burned " is the farmer's phrase ; to prevent this, they 
should be most thoroughly stirred in with the soil. My 
practice is, to take such manure in a wooden bucket, and 
passing from hill to hill, scatter, if phosphates, as much as 
I can take up in a half closed hand ; if Peruvian guano, 
about half as much, over a circle of about two feet in di- 
ameter. A man follows immediately after with a six-tined 
fork; he is directed to turn it just under the surface, and 
then draw his fork across the hill three times, and again 
three times at right angles with the first direction, ending 
with planting the fork in the middle of the hill, and giving 
it a twist around. I am thus particular in my directions, 
because day laborers seldom realize the corrosive efiects 
of these highly concentrated fertilizers. After my man, 
a boy follows to plant the seed ; he sweeps a circle with 
his finger around each hill, as he finishes planting. 

After the vines have got so far along as to show their 
runners, I top dress the surface with hen manure, or some 
of the special manures above mentioned, and immediately 
follow with the cultivator. 

It will be perceived that my system of manuring is 
based upon the theory that vines prefer their food near 
the surface of the ground. I draw this inference from the 
fact, that vines are great lovers of heat, being quite sen- 
sitive to changes of temperature, and also from tracing 



16 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

roots, and finding under the old system of deep manuring, 
that they would, at first starting, run but an inch or two 
below the surface of the earth, when they would spread 
out horizontally, and stretch on for some feet at a very 
uniform distance below the surface. Again, I find my 
crops very satisfactory under this system of manuring, 
and for the past four years have cultivated all my crop 
(four to seven acres annually), on this plan. My friends 
will note that I reduce my manure very fine, and mix it 
very thoroughly with the soil. My soil is a strong loam. 

PKEPAKING THE HILLS. 

The system almost universally advised and pursued in 
preparing the hills for planting, is to throw out the earth 
from within a circle of from two and a half to four feet in 
diameter, and from six inches to a foot in depth, oftentimes 
quarrying out rocks and digging into the hard-pan to get 
the standard depth. Then fill in with manure, and cover this 
with earth, raising a low mound in the form of a trun- 
cated cone about six inches above the surface. On this 
mound the seed are planted. Where the land is freshly 
turned sod, the hills are usually made by cutting a hole 
of the usual diameter in the sod with a sharp spade or 
axe. In my own practice, I have given up this method for 
years. The plan of excavating a hole, and putting in it 
all, or about all, the manure for the crop, appears to 
be founded on the theory that the roots wiU confine them- 
selves to the area — an idea entirely erroneous, as we have 
already shown. Quarrying into the hard-pan and putting 
manure down to such cold depths, is inviting the vine to 
violate its instinctive love of heat. Again, this system 
involves a great deal of labor, particularly when sod land 
is planted, and on these latter the pieces of sod taken out 
of the hills remain nuisances over the surface of the field, 
either clogging the cultivator, or being knocked against 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 17 

the young vines. Let any farmer try the plan of prepar- 
ing his hills as I have detailed above, and I will guaran- 
tee that he will not again return to the present system. 
If bam manure is to be used in the hills, let them be 
made saucer shape, broad and shallow. In preparing 
freshly broken sod, I find Share's harrow an excellent 
implement, as it will pare down the sod to an inch in 
thickness, and make the soil as easy to be worked as old 
ground. 

HOW FAR APAET SHOULD WE HAVE THE BILLS, AiO) 
HOW MANY VINES SHALL WE LEAVE EST THE HILL? 

The great error among farmers is to make these hills 
too near together, and leave too many vines in each hill. 
A very common distance for Marrow squashes is six feet 
apart each way, three or four vines being left in each hill. 

A little, figuring will show the bad policy of the prac- 
tice. When a Marrow squash vine grows alone — and it 
oftentimes happens that one comes up among other crops 
on the farm — ^it will mature as many as three squashes, and 
at times half a dozen or more. Squashes so grown are 
almost always fine types of the particular variety. Now, 
on the contrary, when the hills are six feet apart, with 
three or four vines to a hill, the vines will not average 
one squash to each. I have been amused to receive the 
estimates of farmers of the number of squashes to the 
vine on the heaviest crop of Marrows- they ever saw. As 
often as not the reply would be " three to the vine." 
Now an acre of ground planted 6x6 will have about 
1200 hills to the acre ; four vines to the hill would be 
4800 vines to the acre. The present variety of Autumnal 
Marrow squashes as now grown, will average above seven 
pounds to the squash ; if the vines produced on an aver- 
age one squash apiece, we should then have 33,600 lbs., or 
over seventeen tons to the acre ! Whereas the largest crop 
on record, as far as I am aware, of this variety of Marrow 
is less than eleven tons to the acre. From such figures 



18 SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 

the conclusion stands out with emphasis, that a system 
that, taking the average of crops, does not give over one 
squash to two vines, is unnatural, unfarmer-like, and un- 
profitable. 

The shortest distance, where the hill system of planting 
is pursued, should not be less than 8 feet each way for 
Boston Marrow squash and other running varieties, 
with the exception of the Hubbard, Turban, and Yoko- 
hama, which are ranker growers, and should not be 
planted nearer than nine or ten feet each way. The hills 
for the Mammoth varieties should be twelve or more feet 
apart each way. At these distances apart, two plants in 
each hill, (the vines being thinned down to that number 
when the runners begin to start), will be found sufiicient 
to well cover the ground. Were it not for danger from 
the borer, I would never leave more than one vine to a 
hill, — putting the hills in each case proportionally nearer. 
One of the finest crops of Turban squashes I ever raised, 
a crop that took the county premium for yield that year, 
was raised with but one vine to the hill, and the crop that 
took our county premium the year previous was grown 
with two vines to the hill. This brings us to the discus- 
sion of the Drill versus Hill system of planting. On the 
supposition that the great error in growing squashes has 
been to crowd the roots too much together below ground, 
while the vines were crowded too much together above 
ground, I have advocated, and to some extent practised, 
the Drill system of planting — ^having each vine entirely 
by itself, and distributing them evenly over the ground. 
Assuming that 10 x 10 or 100 square feet is sufficient room 
for the plant, on the Drill system, I allow 7 x 7 or about 
50 feet for one plant. In planting on this system, the field 
is marked out as if for hills, the lines crossing each other 
every seven feet. In planting in drills I put three seeds 
along in the line, and when the plants begin to show run- 
ners, thin to one plant. By the drill system, in addition 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 19 

to the advantages above claimed, I think that the crop is 
more uniform in size, and the squashes are better propor- 
tioned in their forms than under the hill system. The 
vines being in a row, instead of a circle, the cultivator can 
be carried nearer to them. Most of my land is very un- 
even, otherwise I should always plant in drills in preference 
to hills. 

PLANTING THE SEED. 

The quantity of seed per acre for the Marrow and Hub- 
bard varieties is set by practical farmers at two and a 
half pounds. This allows for liberal planting with a good 
surplus for after use, should cold or wet weather rot the 
seed, or insects destroy the plants that first appear. Four 
seeds in the hill and three in the driU is sufficient. The 
seed should not be put in, in the latitude of Boston, earlier 
than the 10th of May, and may be safely sown in ordinary 
seasons as late as the first of June, and success is some- 
times attained with seed planted on rich, warm land as 
late as the twentieth of June. A part and sometimes all 
of the seed planted as early as the 10th of May will 
rot in the ground ; yet to get the vines along early, and 
thus enable them to survive the attacks of the squash 
bugs, farmers oftentimes take this risk. If, after a cold, 
wet spell, the planter mistrusts the seed have rotted in 
the ground, let him scratch away the earth carefully with 
his fingers (it is infinitely easier to put a seed under than 
to find it again ! ), and if the seed is rotten, it will readily 
show it when pressed between the thumb and finger. 

Seed may be planted either by using the hoe, (dropping 
the seed, and covering with the hoe,) or each one may be 
thrust into the ground with the thumb and finger. If the 
attempt is made to push the seed under by the finger 
alone, it is frequently left too near the surface, as the 
finger is very apt to slip by it unawares. If squir- 



20 SQUASHES, HOW TO GKOW THEM, ETC. 

rels or field mice abound, it will be found safer to plant 
with the hoe, as the little rascals appear to have a rare 
faculty for smelb'ng out the very spot where the seeds lie 
when thrust under by the finger. I have known them to 
begin at one end of a field and pass from hill to hill in a 
straight line across the field, digging out every seed with 
unerring accuracy. Seed opened with a knife and rubbed 
with arsenic or strichnine and scattered in the paths will 
generally check them. Two inches is ample depth in any 
soU, and early in the spruig, or in a rather wet or heavy 
soU, the seed had better not be planted more than from 
an inch to an inch and a half in depth. 

Seed planted on upturned sod will vegetate sooner and 
come up with larger rudimentary leaves than that planted 
in rich, old ground ; I presume that this is because sod 
land lies lighter and is better drained and, consequently, 
warmer than old ground. If, when the rudimentary 
leaves appear, the seed shell adheres to either leaf, it 
will do no harm, but if it confines both leaves together, 
it should be removed, if it can be done without injury. 
If a seed pushes but a single rudimentary leaf above the 
surface, the plant rarely, if ever, comes to anything. If 
these rudunentary leaves continue to increase in size, but 
no leaf shows itself springing from between them, the 
plant will come to nothing. If the young plants come 
with a yeUow color, it proves that the season is too cold 
for them ; if, on the other hand, they assume a very dark, 
dull green color, it is usually because the manure with 
which the young rootlets are in contact is too strong for 
them; it is good policy, when the manure proves too 
strong, to carefully remove some of the earth around the 
plants with the finger, and with the finger stir in a little 
fresh earth. 

If, as at times will happen, some hills are entirely desti- 
tutie of plants, it is far better to plant them with seed 
than to transplant surplus vines from other hills ; true, 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 21 

such vines sometimes root at once, but if checked in their 
growth by transplanting, they rarely amount to anything 
in the end. 

This is one of the great conditions of success in squash 
culture, to have the vines start well and' make a rapid 
growth without a check. Experience has frequently 
proved, that late planted vines will oftentimes ripen their 
crops as early, and usually bear heavier crops, than those 
planted two or three weeks sooner. 

HILL CULTURE AND LEVEL CULTURE. 

After the plants appear, it is customary to draw earth 
around them ; this is a good practice as far as it tends to 
keep them from being broken off by the winds. It is 
also an almost universal custom to draw up the earth into 
a mound of two or three feet in diameter, gradually in- 
creasing the height of it with each hoeing until it is six 
inches or more above the level of the field. I consider 
the labor entirely useless, to say the least, and have con- 
fined my own practice for several years past to level cul- 
ture, making no hills, and drawing just earth enough 
home to each plant to keep it from being swayed, and 
thus injured by the wind. 

HOEENTG AND CULTIVATING. 

About as soon as the plants show themselves above the 
surface, the Cultivator should be set running. If the 
hills have been made equi-distant each way, the surface 
can be cultivated close home to them on every side, leav- 
ing but little work for the hoe. In no department of 
farming is the superiority of the Cultivator over the com- 
mon hand-hoe brought out in stronger contrast, than in 
working the large open areas between squash hills. I 



22 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 

would rather have the work done by a one-horse Culti- 
vator with a boy to direct the horse and a man to hold 
the implement, than have the services of twenty men 
with hand hoes ; for not only would the surface be gone 
over in equal time, but the ground be more deeply and 
more thoroughly stirred, and the weeds be better shaken up 
and turned under than would be possible with hoe cul- 
ture. The cultivator should be used as often as the 
weeds start, and whenever the surface appears hard, the 
object being two-fold, to eradicate weeds and keep the 
surface light and mellow. K witch grass abounds, the 
Cultivator must be freely used, particularly when the 
surface is hot and dry, that the vitality of the freshly 
torn roots may be destroyed. It is not well to leave 
the soil unstirred until weeds have attained to some 
size, as such are very apt to re-root. If the Cultivator 
is used -while the weeds are small, it can be spread 
open to its utmost capacity. It is always well to have 
one course of the Cultivator half overlap the preceding 
course. 

The last, and one of the most critical, periods when 
the Cultivator is needed, is just previous to the push- 
ing out of the runners over the surface of the field. 
The vines are then growing rapidly, (I have found that 
the large varieties, by actual measurement, grow as 
much as fourteen inches in forty-eight hours), and if spec- 
ial care is not exercised, the runners will push so far 
as to prevent the final use of the Cultivator. The re- 
sult will be a very weedy field the remainder of the 
season. I have sometimes practised, when caught in 
this way, breaking the hold of the tendrils and turning 
aside with the hand such runners as had got so far 
from the hills as to be in the way of the Cultivator; 
but I have observed that where the tendrils are broken 
from whatever they have naturally clung to, as often as 
not the vines are injured so much by the wind that 



SQUAsSHES, HOW TO GEOW TIIElSr, ETC. 23 

they yield little or nothing; they are so twisted that 
they are often completely inverted; and though the 
leaf stalks are true to their instincts, and bring them- 
selves perpendicular to the surface, yet in doing so, the 
curvfe they make, passing under the vine, lifts it a little 
above the surface, too far for the joint roots to strike 
into the earth to hold the plant in place and nourish 
it. It is a bad plan ever to break the hold of the ten- 
drils, and as a general rule better allow the large weeds 
that appear towards the close of the season to remain, 
than to pull them up and tear them out from among 
the vines. If the weeds are to be removed, better cut 
them off close to" the surface and leave them. A 
squash crop will foul the land at the very best, and let no 
one plant to squashes with the idea that the frequent 
cultivation allowed early in the season will tend to im- 
prove a piece of ground already foul with weeds ; for 
young weeds will spring up as soon as the spread of the 
vines prevents the farther use of the Cultivator, and 
when the leaves begin to thin out, at the close of the sea- 
son, under the stimulant of the sun and air, these soon be- 
come mammoths in the rich soil. When we consider that 
climbing appears to be natural to the squash vine, the in- 
jury caused by breaking the hold of the tendrils, and by 
the moving about among the thick net work of vines to 
do this, in connection with the fact that at best it is next 
to impossible to keep the ground in clean condition, I 
question whether, as a general rule, it is not better to 
^ow these late and large weeds to remain untouched, and 
leave the clearingof the ground to the crop of the next year. 
When the area of ground is small, and very clean cul- 
ture is desirable, I would advise the driving of a few 
stakes among the vines to give the runners a hold when 
they first push out. It is not necessary that these stakes 
should protrude more than one or two inches above the 
surface. 



24 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 

Many old farmers lay down the rule that no one shall 
set foot on the squash patch after the vines meet between 
the rows. This is a good general rule, for most men 
tread among vines as ruthlessly as though passing among 
wire cables, crushing them under foot with perfect impu- 
nity. I don't think I ever saw a farmer pass among even 
his own vines with what I should call proper care. If 
necessary to pass among vines, carry a short stick in one 
hand to lift the leaves to see where the foot is to rest be- 
fore planting it. 

SQUASHES WITH OTHER CROPS. 

In the vicinity of large cities, where land, manure, and 
labor are costly— and much of the market gardening in 
the vicinity of Boston, Kew York and Philadelphia is 
on land worth from 1500 to $1,000 an acre — ^farmers 
usually grow their squashes in connection with other 
crops. These are oftentimes Peas and early Cabbages. 
If early Peas or Cabbages are planted in rows three feet 
apart, by omitting every third row, and planting this 
to squashes at the usual time, the crops will not inter- 
fere with each other, as the squashes do not push their 
runners till July, after the pea crop has been marketed. 
With Cabbage, the third row may be omitted, or every 
third plant in the third row; this wiU give the squashes 
9x9. It will be seen that squashes can be raised only 
with the earliest varieties of Cabbage, such as Early 
Wakefield, Early Oxheart, Early York, Little Pixie, 
Burn els, King of Dwarfs, that have been started in a hot 
bed. The plan- practised occasionally of growing 
squashes among corn, I consider a bad one. It is very 
common in the country to plant at the second hoeing a 
couple of seed of the Yellow Field Pumpkins in every 
third or fourth hUl, and the yield is usually satisfactory 
to the farmer ; though if a field was divided in two, and 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 25 

an accurate account kept o.f the income from each half, I 
am inclined to believe that it would be found that what 
was gained in pumpkin was more than lost in corn. 
Squashes are more delicate in their habits than the hardy, 
rough vined pumpkin, and the result of attempting to 
grow them with corn is usually a smuU crop of inferior 
specimens. 

SETTING OF THE FRIJIT. 

Soon after the runners have put forth, blossom buds 
will begin to appear at the junction of the leaf-stalks with 
the vine. As the buds develop, the stems will develop 
also, until the latter grow a foot or more long, a little 
longer than the leaf-stalks. The blossom now opens, 
and we have a large yellow flower, several inches in di- 
ameter, with a powerful and rich fragrance, very similar 
to that of a magnolia. This flower has at the center a 
yellow cylinder, about an inch in length, covered with fine 
yellow pollen. I find that many persons look for their 
squashes from this class of flowers. Squash vines have 
the sexes distinct in each flower, being what botanists call 
monoecious. These are the male flowers, and from their 
structure can never produce squashes ; their ofiice is 
wholly to supply pollen to fertilize the pistillate or j^male. 
flowers. The first pistillate or female blossom rarely ap- 
pears nearer the root than the seventeenth leaf, or farther 
than the twenty-third. Instead of having a long stem to 
support it, this flower opens close down to the juncture of 
tbe leaf-stalk with the vine. It has a small globular for- 
mation beneath it, which is the embryo of the future 
squash. If the structure of the center of the blossom is 
examined, it Tvill be found to difier from the tall, male 
flow^er, in having the central cylinder divided at the top 
into several parts, usually four, sometimes six in number. 
These are what botanists call the pistils, and it is necessary 
2 



26 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

that the fine yellow dust of the male flower should touch 
these, to fertilize them, that seed may be produced, and 
consequently a squash grow — for the primary reason why 
a squash grows, is, to protect and afibrd nutriment to the 
seed, the use of it as food being a secondary matter. This 
may be proved by so confining a blossom, that no pollen 
can get access to it, when the blossom will usually wilt, 
and the embryo squash turn yellow and decay. If the fe- 
male flower be broken off from the embryo squash before 
the flower has come to full maturity, the squash will de- 
cay. These female blossoms are so covered and hidden by 
the tall leaves, that it is evident that the fertilizing pollen 
must be conveyed to tbem by the bees, to whom the 
squash field appears to be a rich harvest field. All of the 
crossing or mixing of squashes is caused by the pollen 
from the male flowers of one variety being carried by the 
bees to the female flowers of another variety. Squashes 

AEE CROSSED OR MIXED IN THEIE SEED, AND NOT IN THE 

FRUIT. Many cultivators are in error on this point ; they 
have the very common illustration of the crossing of dif- 
ferent varieties of corn in their mind, where the mixture 
of the varieties is at once apparent to the eye, and infer 
from this, that the mixture between different varieties of 
squashes should make itself visible to the eye the same sea- 
son it^ occurs. A moment's reflection will correct this ; 
the crossing of the first season is always in the seed, and 
for this reason we see it in the corn the first season, as the 
seed is immediately visible to the eye, while the various 
colors of the different varieties also aid us in the matter. 
With squashes the crossing is likewise in the seed, and 
hence can not be seen in them, until the seeds are 
planted, when the yield will show the impurity of their 
blood. But, though the crossing can not be seen in the 
squashes themselves the first season, yet, if one of the va- 
rieties planted near each other, has seed having the pecu- 
liar, thick, salmon-colored coating, so characteristic of 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 27 

some of the South American varieties, this indication of 
admixture may be detected by the eye the first season. 
The parallelism between the crossing of squashes and corn 
may be carried further, for it is oftentimes true with corn 
as with squashes, that there is a mixing of varieties, of 
which no indication can be detected in the seed by the eye 
the first season, which a second season' will develop — what 
was before an eight-rowed variety, into a ten or twelve- 
rowed sort, or dark kernels may be replaced with white 
ones, and by numerous similar freaks, bring to light an 
admixture of varieties. 

It is of considerable practical importance, that the law 
of admixture should be clearly understood, that the risk, 
incidental to planting seed from squashes that looh pure, 
should be generally known ; for it will be seen from what 
I have written, that seed taken from squashes that ex- 
ternally are perfect types of their kinds, may yield a 
patch, where every one may show marks of impurity. 
Again, no matter how many varieties are planted together, 
no crossing from the result of that planting will be seen 
in the external shape^ color^ or appearance of the crop the 
same season. 

To have squash seed pure, the squashes from which they 
are taken, must have been grown isolated, and this not 
only one season, but for a succession of seasons. Should 
several varieties of squashes be grown together, and it be 
desirable to keep one variety pure, it can be done by pre- 
venting any male flowers of the other varieties from ma 
turing — no easy job, as those who have tried it know. The 
product of any particular blossom may be kept pure under 
such circumstances by covering with fine muslin, remov- 
ing it only to fertilize with pollen from a male flower of 
its own vine. 

The location of the female blossom, in a measure cover- 
ed by the leaves, and low down, but little affected by the 
wind, would render it probable that it depends for fertili- 



28 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

zation on the bees, rather than on the wind ; and the fact 
(as a friend who has tested it, informs me) that if only a 
high fence intervenes between two varieties, the admixture 
between them is comj^aratively small, corroborates this 
theory. To preserve the degree of purity that is neces- 
sary in raising different varieties, requires planting at dis- 
tances apart varying with the natural aspect of the coun- 
try ; a level tract requires longer distances than would 
be necessary in an undulating country, and a space inter- 
vening abounding in flowers is a better protection 
than an equal distance where flowers are less numerous. 
The object is to get the pollen removed from the thighs 
or bodies of the bees, or have it covered by the pollen of 
other flowers, before they can pass from a field of one va- 
riety of squash to that of another. My own practice is, to 
secure the planting of one continuous district of country 
with the same variety of squash, by giving to farmers, 
whose lands are near my own, my stock seed for their own 
planting. Even with this precaution matters will have to 
be looked after, lest after all promise to the contrary, greed 
can not master moral courage sufficiently, to induce them 
to pull up the transient vines that spring up from the ma- 
nure among cabbages or potatoes. Old farmers will pro- 
fess, from the appearance of the calyx end, to classify 
squashes as male or female ; this is all nonsense, for, as 
will be inferred from what has been stated, every seed 
from every squash contains the two sexes in itself, in its 
capacity to produce both male and female flowers. 

Squash fields usually make about three settings of fruit. 
I do not mean by this that each vine makes three settings, 
but that this is usually true of a field as a whole. It often 
happens, that most of one of their settings, usually the 
second, turn yellow and rot, after many of the squashes 
reach the size of goose eggs. This is very apt to take 
place, should there be a cold, wet spell just after they 
have set. Sometimes all three of the settings will grow, 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 29 

and then stories of great crops will be heard of in the 
squash districts. When a young Hubbard squash is mak- 
ing a fine growth, it will have a shining green appearance, 
as though just varnished. If the appearance of the squash 
changes to a dull green color, the days of that squash are 
numbered ; it will soon shrivel and decay. 

PINCHING VINES. 

I have seen a vine perfect the growth of a squash 20 lbs. 
in weight, though the vine was cut off within a foot of 
the squash when it had reached the size of an orange, and 
another squash of about the same size was also matured 
on the same vine, about four feet nearer the root. The 
vine was highly manured, and grew on very deep and 
rather moist muck and loam. I can not yet determine the 
laws which govern the art of pruning vines. I have had 
some, the young squashes of which appeared to do finely 
after the extremities of the runners were nipped at near 
the close of the season, and others, where the young 
squashes turned yellow and died, under, seemingly, pre- 
cisely the same circumstance. I am inclined to think, 
that it is not well to pinch off the ends of the vines be- 
fore the young squashes have attained to the size of a 
large orange. How far a crop of squashes might be in- 
creased by the nipping of the vines, or a pruning of the 
roots, is a problem yet to be settled. The use of the 
cultivator just before the vines spread, must do much 
in the way of root-pruning the vines. 

THE RIPENING AND GATHERING OF THE 
CROP. 

In seasons, in which the early part of summer is cold, 
farmers sometimes get almost discouraged with the small 
number of squashes that set, and the slow growth of such 



so SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

as do form, but a few hot weeks entirely change the 
aspect of affairs. 

"When we have good corn weather, it takes but a few 
weeks to mature a squash. I have known instances when 
the first fruit set was completely destroyed by a hail storm, 
which occurred late in September, and yet a fine crop of 
squashes was gathered from the vines. When June and 
July are colder than usual, farmers will often come out 
from an examination of their squash patch with a signifi- 
cant shake of the head, yet I have never known a season, in 
which cold or wet prevented the growing of a fair crop 
of squashes on land selected with judgment, well ma- 
nured, and taken care of The degree of ripening to 
which the crop attains, will be affected by a cold and wet 
season, but the chances of a crop are equally good with a 
season wetter and consequently colder than usual, as with 
a season hotter and dryer than ordinary, for, in addition 
to the check to their development caused by a drought, 
the borer and bugs are more numerous and more active 
in a very dry season than during a very wet one. 

Ripening is indicated in the soft or fleshy stemmed 
squashes, such as the Hubbard, Marrow, and Turban, by 
the drying of the stem, and a dead, punk-like appearance 
which they assume. The leaves near the root gradually 
turn yellow and dry up, and the squashes themselves 
change color ; the Hubbard assuming a duller, more rus- 
set color, and the Marrow and Turban sorts a deeper 
oransce. The skin of the Marrow and Turban will now 
offer more resistance to the thumb-nail, while the Hubbard 
will begin to put on a shell, which will be first detected 
near the stem end. It is a singular fact, that the shell of 
the Hubbard squash usually begins to form on the under 
side — ^the part towards the ground. When this stage is 
reached, squashes can be safely cut for storage. 

At some seasons, a large portion of the crop, and, at 
most seasons, a small portion of the crop, just before 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEl^t, ETC. 31 

ripening, are affected by a blight, whicli turns the leaves 
black near the hills, when they die down, and all the signs 
of early maturity are presented to the inexperienced eye. 
When the process of ripening goes on naturally, the ex- 
posure to the sun's rays, after the leaves have died, does 
no harm, but promotes the full maturing tf the squash ; 
but when squashes become exposed before the natural 
time, by the blighting of the leaves, they are, particularly 
if of the Hubbard variety, apt to be " sun scalt," as the 
term is, by which is meant a bleaching, or whitening of 
the part most exposed to the sun. Such squashes rarely 
form shells, and, if badly scalded, are apt to rot at the part 
affected. In cutting squashes from the vines, a large and 
sharp knife is needed. There are two ways to cut squashes 
from the vines ; one is, to cut the vine, leaving a small 
piece attached to the stem. By so doing, the stem does 
not dry up so readily, and as large stems, when green, will 
weigh as much as a quarter of a pound, if squashes are to 
be sold soon after gathering, this will give quite an addi- 
tion to their weight. IN'arrow, selfish men sometimes cut 
their squashes this way. 

The usual way is, to cut the stem from the vine. When 
first cut, more or less sap will run out in a stream from 
the hollow stem, though the squash may be fully ripe. 

A CRITICAL PERIOD. 

What shall be done with the squashes after they are cut 
from the vines ? The stems need a little exposm-e to the sun 
to scar them, and the earth, which adheres to those grown 
on low land, needs to be dried, that it may be rubbed off 
before the squashes are stored. A good way to accomplish 
this, is, to let the squash remain where it is cut, provided 
the leaves do not. shade it, care being taken to give it a 
turn, to bring the under side up to the sun. 

If there is danger from frost, it is better to gather them 



32 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 

together at convenient distances, that they may be more 
readily protected. The interval between the cutting of 
squashes and the storing of them is a critical period, as 
oftentimes the keeping of the crop depends upon the 
course then taken. There is a pernicious practice, quite 
prevalent, of placing them in piles as high as can be made, 
without their rolling off. Should frost threaten, this, of 
course, is necessary in order that the mass may be the 
more readily covered with vines to protect them ; but 
when so piled, as soon as danger from frost is over, they 
should at once be taken down, so that all may be exposed as 
much as possible to the sun and air. Farmers, in handling 
squashes at this period, are apt to lose sight of one im- 
portant fact, viz. : that when a squash is cut from the vine, 
its vitality is impaired, and it has no longer such power to 
resist the effects of atmospheric changes as it had previous 
to the separation. I say its vitality is "impaired," for 
the fact that the seed continues to fill out for a month or 
two after the squashes are gathered and stored, proves 
that there is a degree of vitality, however feeble, yet 
remaining in the squash after separation from the vine. 
The fact that sap exudes and gradually thickens into 
tears, or, at times, runs in a stream from the stems 
when cut, no matter how ripe a soft stemmed squash 
may appear to be, seems to prove that some vital function 
of the sap vessels has been disturbed ; while the greater 
readiness with which such squashes decay, carries us be- 
yond theory to the fact of a diminished vitality. I have 
known the lower layer of a lot of Marrow scjuashes in the 
field, to be found rotten through and through on removal — 
and this when there had been no frost to injure them — the 
result being due wholly to the dampness of the ground, dur- 
ing a rainy interval, acting on a diminished vitality. 

I have known instances in which lots of Marrow squashes 
that had never been touched by frost, and were perfectly 
sound when stored, were suddenly covered with spots of 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 33 

black rot, soon after they were put into a dry apartment. 
These lots had been exposed in the field in piles during 
a series of days of cold rain. 'The practical lesson to be 
drawn from such facts is, that squashes should never be 
left in the fields exposed to cold rains after cutting. 

After the stems have had the sun a couple of days to 
dry and sear them, and even before, if cold, wet storms 
threaten, the squashes should be piled with great care on 
spring wagons, and taken from the field. The rule should 
be laid down as invariable, that no squash shall be drop- 
ped in any stage of its progress, from the field to the 
market ; they should always be laid down. 

THE STORING OF THE CROP. 

Squashes are usually at their lowest price in the fall of 
the year, after the crop has been gathered, and before the 
first severe frosts. The crop being bulky, and requiring 
dry storage, farmers are intent on getting it to market be- 
fore cold weather sets in. After the first severe freezing 
weather, the crop is usually held at a higher figure, as the 
surplus not intended for storage has been disposed of. In 
the immediate vicinity of the large cities of the North, a 
large proportion of the crop is stored in buildings known 
as " squash-houses," to be marketed during the winter and 
spring months. These buildings are oftentimes old dwelling- 
houses, school-houses, or ware-houses, removed from their 
original locations to the farm, and then put to this second- 
ary use. I present a vertical section of my own squash- 
house, by which the general features of all of them can 
be seen at a glance. 

In dimensions, the building is about 24 x 35 feet, with a 
height of 10 feet to the plates. It is divided into three 
rows of bins, w^hich are separated from each other and 
the sides of the building by aisles, {A^ A, A,) about 26 
inches in width,a distance which admits of the easy handling 
2* 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 



of a bushel basket, or barrel. The bins, {B, B^ B^ are 
about 5 feet wide, 26 inches high, and 5|- feet long. The 
uprights, which support the series of bins, are small joists, 
2x4 inches, with cross-ties of inch or inch and a quarter 
board sunk into them, on which the several platforms arc 
laid. These uprights are the length of the bins apart, 
viz. : 5|- feet. At the edges of the bins, boards, 6 inches 




■///J-//////////////////////. 



r/////////////W/////////. 



y////^////y////yx//////-/ 



'm/m///////////mm. 



SECTION OP SQUASH-HOUSE. 

wide, are laid, to prevent the squashes from rolling out. 
These boards should be planed on the inner, upper edge, 
that they may not cut into the squashes that lean upon 
them. The series of floors are made of strips of board, 
from four to six inches wide, nailed about half an inch 
apart, to allow a circulation of air. It is well to have 
the lower floor a sufficient distance from the floor of the 
squash-house, to permit a cat to go under. The cellar wall 
should be carried close up to the floor, by filling in front 
of the timbers with brick, or small stones and . mortar ; 
this will prevent rats from working through. As the 
building is designed to support much weight, it should be 
strongly braced by timbers crossing from plate timber to 
plate timber, to prevent spreading, while the cross-timbers, 
in the cellar, require props of masonry, or joist. To eco- 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 35 

nomize in fuel, on the two coldest sides, my squash-house 
is double plastered, and has double windows all around ; 
some have inner wooden shutters to each window, which 
are kept up during cold weather, both day and night, only 
as much light being admitted, at times, as may be neces- 
sary, while attending to work. The roof has five sliding 
windows, which assist in ventilation and give light to the 
upper part of the building, that otherwise would be quite 
dark when filled with squashes. The stove is at one of 
the coldest corners, with a funnel passing across to a 
chimney at the opposite corner. A building of the above 
proportions will hold about one ton of Hubbard squashes 
to two bins, and by careful and close stowage in all avail- 
able room, it can be made to hold about sixty tons. 

There is an advantage in having a low, wide building 
rather than a high and narrow one, as a greater portion of 
it is accessible from the floor, it is less exposed to cold 
winds, and the heat is more evenly distributed. In a high 
building, the heat in the upper portion is apt to be excessive. 
. The squashes should be brought to the squash-house in a 
dry condition, and be stored before dew falls. The stems 
being yet green, the squashes should be so piled as to 
bring these to the outside as much as possible. In placing 
the squashes on the shelves, put the largest ones on the bot- 
tom, giving them all a slant in one direction ; they will 
thus pack better, and the uniformity will be agreeable to 
the eye. From the beginning of the storing, every win- 
dow and door should be kept open during fair weather, 
and a fire at the same time will help in the drying of the 
stems. Should there come a damj) time of one day or 
more, by all means start the fire. The stems will be apt to 
mould some, and the air of the building have a disagree- 
able smell if they decay, though a little moulding may 
always be expected. In about three weeks from the time 
of storing, the stems will be dry. In handling the squashes, 
I need hardly reiterate the caution of care. My practice 



36 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

is to form a string of boys, from the wagon to the 
shelves, and the squashes are tossed from one to another, 
with the caution to handle them like eggs. Boys well 
trained will not drop more than one squash to the ton, and 
I have known my boys to pass several tons without drop- 
ping a single squash. 

CARE DURmG THE WINTER. 

If the squash-house has been built with reference to 
warmth, when once filled with squashes, it is surprising 
with what little fire frost can be kept out. The mass of 
squashes are, in themselves, a great store-house of heat, 
and with inside shutters for the coldest weather, the 
building is frost proof, with a small outlay of fuel. 

In my own building, capable of storing sixty tons or 
more, I have a salamander stove of capacity sufficient to 
hold two hods of coal. In ordinary winter weather two 
hods of fresh, and a hod of sifted coal for night use, will last 
about twenty-four hours. To keep the fire over night, I 
leave the cover off" about half an inch, and, if very windy, 
also put up the door in front within half an inch of closed. 
When I first attempted to keep squashes during the winter 
in very cold weather, I frequently sat up till midnight, and 
then retired with much anxiety, lest Jack Frost should 
steal a march on me before morning ; but from experience 
I find that a salamander can be as well regulated and as 
readily controlled as a Magee stove, while the greater 
length of funnel that can be used with them, by reason 
of their superior draft, is a decided advantage. 

No one can keep squashes to the best advantage, until 
he has fully learned to so control his fire as to keep the 
temperature near the freezing point, and yet not endanger 
the squashes. From a want of this knowledge, almost all 
squash-houses are kept at too high a temperature, and, as 
a consequence, the squashes lose in weight and quality, 
and, if they are Hubbards, in appearance also, losing their 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 37 

fine dark green color, and becoming of a reddish, rusty hue. 
The best temperature is as low as forty degrees. After 
squashes are stored, the great desiderata are a low tem- 
perature and a dry air. " Should the weather be mild in the 
course of the winter, never be tempted to open the win- 
dows unless the air is dry^ — a very rare thing in winter, 
as, on most mild winter days, the air is loaded with moist- 
ure. If it is desirable to air the squash-house, select a dry 
day when not very cold, start up the fire and open the 
windows at the roof. Squashes that w^ere grown in a wet 
season, will rot most in winter, and vice versa. Other 
things equal, the keeping of squashes depends greatly on 
the hygrometric state of the air — in other words, the 
dryer the air the better they will keep. This is the reason 
squashes keep better in a squash-house than in a cellar — ■ 
the house is no warmer than a cellar, but the air is dryer. 
In dry, sandy cellars, by the aid of a fire, they can be kept 
about as well as in a squash-house. Squashes in dry 
cellars will usually keep very well until January, and some- 
times to the first of February, particularly if the damp, 
external air can be kept from them. Several years ago I 
lost not far from twenty-five tons of squashes in about ten 
days, as I now beheye, from having admitted the warm, 
damp air of a January thaw into the cellar. After squashes 
are stored, the less they can be handled the better; and 
in cellars, it is oftentimes better to let a few rot than to 
overhaul squashes late in the season with reference to 
culling out the rotten ones, for, after such overhauling, 
they usually decay faster than before. Cellar-kept 
squashes have some advantages over these kept in a squash- 
house ; they keep their original rich green color, lose but 
little or none in weight, and are of better quality. They 
have the two disadvantages of not keeping as long, and 
perishing very soon when sent late' to market. This latter 
fact is now generally known to dealers, and they hesitate 
to purchase cellar-kept squashes late in winter. The win- 



38 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

ter of 1866-7 will be a memorable one among the squash 
men of Massachusetts. Squashes being remarkably plenty 
and cheap in the fall, every squash-house in the vicinity of 
Boston was filled to overflowing. As the season advanced, 
squashes began to show a remarkable tendency to rot, and 
the result was that, in many cases, as large a proportion 
as four-fifths of the crop rotted before spring opened. The 
summer previous had been unusually "wet and cold. 

If apples, squashes, or any other fruits are gathered 
ripe, the next step is to decay ; but if they are not fully 
ripe, they have this intermediate step to take before de- 
caying. Heat is an agent in promoting progress in each 
of these steps ; hence, the less heat above a freezing temper- 
ature in which squashes can be kept, other conditions 
being equal, the longer they will keep. 

The very small squashes which are usually given to stock 
as soon as gathered, are among the very best for keeping, 
provided they are stored in the warmest part of the build- 
ing. Late in spring they are salable at a high figure for 
cooking purposes. Out of about five hundred pounds of 
such squashes stored so near my salamander that the 
outer tier cooked with the heat, I found but about ten 
pounds of defective squash when I overhauled them 
for the first time, near April. Squashes planted about the 
first of June will usually keep better than those planted 
earlier, on the same principle that the Roxbury Russet, 
and Baldwin, keep better than the Porter, or Sweet Bough 
apple, the former not being ripe when gathered from the 
tree. The order in nature is that fruit should ripen before 
it decays. 

MARKETING THE CROP. 

Squashes are sold by the piece, by the pound, and by 
the barrel. Sales by the piece are unknown in the Eastern 
States, as far as my knowledge extends. In the markets 
of Kew England, after the summer squashes, of which 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 3D 

there is but a limited demand, the Marrow and Turban are 
brought to market, and, before frosty weather sets in, 
they are sold mostly by the ton to large dealers. • Late in 
the fall the Hubbards begin to come to market, for if 
sold just after gathering, they are rather forced on the 
market, the Marrow and Turban being usually recognized 
as the squashes for fall use. During the winter, the sup- 
ply from the squash-houses around Boston is mostly 
brought to market in barrels, and sold by the barrel with- 
out weighing. This is poor practice, as there is often a 
number of pounds difference made by the thickness of 
the squash, its size, the packing, and the size of the barrel. 
Such a system of marketing is apt to templf to petty trick- 
ery. 

A greater, or less proportion of stored squashes will 
decay under the most favorable circumstances. It is the 
policy of the squash grower to lose as little as possible in 
this way, and the custom of the markets of Boston usually 
allows a little latitude in this matter. Hence, particularly 
as the season advances, one or more squashes that have 
small rotten spots on them, are often packed in a barrel. 
The Hubbard is a very deceiving squash ; it may be en- 
tirely rotten inside, and yet, to inexperienced eyes, appear 
perfectly sound without. If the outside has white mould 
spots, looking like some of the concentric mosses, the 
squash is usually sound underneath the shell ; but if these 
mould spots are greenish or yellow, it is usually soft rotten 
in a spot just beneath them. If the shell at either end, 
(and the Hubbard usually begins to decay at the ends), 
has a watery look outside, the squash is usually consider- 
ably decayed underneath. If the Hubbard is very light, 
it has usually the dry rot inside ; if remarkably heavy, it 
is usually water-soaken and worthless within. If a squash, 
on being cut, proves to be water-soaken, a close exami- 
nation will usually show some small opening, where, during 
some stage of its grow^, the external air found entrance. 



40 SQTJASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC 

FEOST-BITTEN SQUASHES. 

"With the utmost care, squashes will at times get frost- 
bitten. The Marrows and Turbans show this by turning 
a darker orange color on the part frozen. If as much as 
one-half of the squash has been frozen, it is frozen through 
its thickness, and will very certainly soon decay, and the 
best disposition to make of it is, to keej) it at about freez- 
ing point in an ice-house, until fed to stock. If less than 
half has been frozen, before the sun shines on it turn the 
frozen surface under, and keep out the light as much as 
possible ; this will take out the frost and save it, if any 
remedy will, t^iough a frozen squash is always unreliable 
property. Some years since, I had a load of Marrow 
squashes brought me, which had been stored in a barn 
during a cold spell, and the outer tiers had been frost- 
bitten. I separated the badly frost-bitten ones, putting 
them, frozen side down, in a dark cellar on the damp 
earth, and stored such as showed no signs of injury on 
the shelves. In a few days, no sign of frost could be seen 
on those stored in the cellar, and they kept apparently as 
well as though they had never been injured, while those 
stored on the shelves soon rotted badly. The Hubbard 
squash is not as much injured by frost as are the Marrow 
and Turban ; if it has a shell on it, the result will usually 
be the production of a dry rot under the shell as far as 
the frost extended, and no further. I have cut squashes 
in February that had been frozen in November, over an 
area of about five inches square, and found all the injury 
done limited to this space. 

MAKKET PRICES OF SQUASHES. 

Within the past six years. Marrow squashes have varied 
in price in the markets of New England from $10 to |40 
per ton ; these variations are caused, for the most part, by 
the quantity brought to market, for, though equal areas 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 41 

may be planted, there may be all this difference, owing to 
the greater prevalence of insects one season over another. 
The average price of Marrow squashes for the past six 
years has been about twenty-five dollars a ton. 

The extremes of prices of the Turban and Hubbard 
during the same period have been from |20 to |50; the 
average having been nearly thirty-four dollars. 
. Previous to the war, the Marrow ruled in the market at 
from $15 to $20 per ton, and the Hubbard at from $20 to 
$25. These prices are the market rates just after the crop 
is gathered. As the season advances, prices rise to 50, 
60, 70, 80, 90 and 100 dollars per ton, and occasional lots 
kept late into the spring, and sold by the barrel, have 
brought as high as $140 per ton. The last four tons I 
sold the past season brought me ^400; yet so remarkably 
poorly did the crop keep the past winter, that the profit 
would have been equally as great, had I sold at $25 per 
ton in the fall. 

The markets of 'New York and of the large Southern 
cities are, as yet, but poorly supplied with the Hubbard 
squash during the winter season. I can think of no in- 
vestment in agricultural products that would pay better 
than the judicious handling of a couple of hundred tons 
of Hubbard squashes in New York or Philadelphia dur- 
ing the winter months. 

Squash farming, on lands pushed well out into the ocean, 
have some advantasres over inland farming:. Neither the 
cabbage, or turnip fly, the pea bug, squash bug, or other 
destructive insect is nearly as prevalent in such sections 
as just back from the coast, while the temperature is 
three or four degrees higher late in the fall, which usually 
carries the crop safely through . the first severe frost, and 
gives them the advantage of two or three weeks good 
ripening weather, that usually precedes the severe frosts 
that usher in winter. I have known years when the mag- 
gots and bugs proved so destructive to the crop a few 



42 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

miles from the coast, as to bring squashes up to 40 and 
50 dollars the ton, when at the sea side the crop was as 
large as usual, having received but little or no injury. 

SQUASHES FOR STOCK 

When a large quantity of squashes is stored, there 
will always be more or less of waste. K in a large town, 
many of the spotted squashes can be most profitably 
handled by cutting out the decayed portion, and market- 
ing the squash at a reduced price. It has been my practice 
for years to dispose of many of my defective squashes in 
this way, and I would state, as a very fair index of the 
comparative popularity of the Autumnal Marrow, Turban, 
and Hubbard squashes, in a community where they have 
all been grown for years, and are well known, that the 
sales of my market-man would average, late in the fall 
and in early winter, ten pounds of Hubbard and Turban 
to one^pound of the Marrow, though he ofiered the Mar- 
row at one-third the price of the Hubbard and Turban. 
After many trials I have found it next to impossible to 
dispose of the Marrow, while having a stock of Hubbard 
and Turban, hence have adopted the plan of feeding the 
former to my stock. 

I have fed principally to horned cattle and pigs. The 
squashes should first have the seed removed, as these tend 
to dry up milch-cows, or, if fed to pigs, to cause them to 
urinate very freely. The Marrow should be fed to horned 
stock either in quite large pieces, or in pieces about three 
inches square, to prevent choking — ^for, if made much 
smaller, the cattle are more liable to choke. The Hub- 
bard should always be cut into pieces three inches square, 
as the shell and curve of large pieces combined, are too 
much for the cattle to manage. 

If squashes are plenty, they may be fed very liberally, 
a bushel and more a day for each head ; the only danger 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC 43 

to be guarded against being lest they relax the animals 
too much. In value for milk purposes, they appear to 
combine the good qualities of the Mangold Wurtzel, and 
the Carrot, both increasing the flow of milk and improv- 
ing its quality. This is more particularly true of the 
Hubbard and Turban varieties. For fattening purposes, 
the Hubbard is excellent, as might be anticipated from 
the large proportion of sugar which is developed in it at 
the approach of winter. I have known a cow to be fatted 
for the butcher on the Hubbard squash, used in connection 
with good English hay. 

In feeding to pigs, it can be fed raw, or be boiled up 
with meal, or meal and scraps. My usual practice has 
been, to boil the squash in a Mott's boiler, about a barrel 
and a half at a time, adding a peck of beef or pork scrajjs, 
broken into small pieces, and stirring in meal, sufiicient to 
thicken it. When cooked, it should be cooled as soon as 
possible, as the squash is very apt to sour, and make the 
mass thin and somewhat unpalatable to the animals. I 
have known a sow, with young, to be kept wholly on raw 
Hubbard squashes, and on her coming in to be in better 
condition than was desirable. 

Squashes might be raised for cattle among corn as pump- 
kins are, (they are better food for animals than pump- 
kms,) though I have doubts of the profitableness of this 
double crop, where each makes its growth and matures 
at about the same time. 

"No doubt an improvement on this is, to omit every 
third row of corn, and give the vacant space to the squash 
hills. Among seed onions, I grow squashes with little or 
no apparent detriment to the crop, but in this case the 
crops are planted and mature with" more than a month's 
difference between them at each end of the season. Be- 
sides horned cattle and hogs, many horses, goats, poultry, 
and rabbits will eat squashes with avidity. 

As to their comparative value as food for stock, each 



44 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM. ETC. 

grower must strike the balance for himself — the facts be- 
ing, that the yield is from one-fourth to one-third as great 
as carrots, and from one-fourth to one-fifth as great as 
mangolds, while they require but a fraction of the care in 
cultivation and gathering, that either of these crops do. 
i 

YARIETIES OF SQUASHES. 

Owing to the great tendency in the varieties of the 
Cucurbitaceous Family to cross with each other, hybids are 
very common. Seed planted the first season after the cross- 
ing has been made, will usually produce a greater crop than 
either of the parent kinds, and individual squashes will be 
superior in quality to either of the parents ; yet, as a rule, 
hybridization is not desirable, for, after the first season, 
there is a deterioration in the quality, below the average 
of the parent kinds, while the mixed varieties are not so 
marketable as the pure kinds. 

Hllbl)ard Squash. — I have traced the history of this 
squash back about sixty years, when the first specimen 




HUBBARD SQUASH. 



was brought into Marblehead by a market-man named 
Green, who lived in the vicinity of Boston. The i^erson 
who, when a girl, ate of the first specimen, is now living, an 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 45 

old lady of over four score years, and recalls the original 
form, which is much like that of the present type — turned 
up " like a Chinese shoe." It is now above twenty years 
since the variety was first brought to our notice by our 
old washerwoman named Hubbard ; and to distinguish it 
from a blue variety that we were then raising, we called 
it *' Ma'am Hubbard's Squash" ; and when the seed became 
a commercial article, and it became necessary to give it a 
fixed name, I called it the Hubbard squash. If I had been 
able at the time to forecast its present fame, and have fore- 
seen that it would become the established winter variety, 
throughout the squash growing region, I might have be- 
stowed some more ambitions name ; and again I might 
not, for the old lady was faithful in her narrow sphere in 
her day and generation, a good, humble soul, and it pleases 
me to think that the name of such an one has become, with- 
out any intent of hers, famous. 

The form of the Hubbard is spherical at the middle, 
gradually receding to a neck at the stem end, and to a 
point usually curved at the calyx end, where it terminates 
in a kind of button or an acorn. In color it is dark srreen, 
excepting where it rests on the earth, where it is of an or- 
.ange color. It usually has streaks of dirty white begin- 
ning at the calyx end, where the ribs meet, and extend- 
ing half or two-thirds way up the squash. After the squash 
ripens, the surface exposed to the sun turns to a dirty 
brown color. The surface is often quite rough, and presents 
quite a knotty appearance. When the Hubbard is ripe it 
has a shell varying in thickness from that of a cent to that 
of a Spanish dollar. 

For a year or two after we began to cultivate the Hub- 
bard, we cultivated also a blue colored squash, called, at 
the time, the Middleton Blue. In a few years this squash 
became so thoroughly incorporated with the Hubbard, by 
repeated crossings, that it appeared to share the character- 
istics of a new varietv • hence we called it the blue Hub- 



46 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 

bard, and for some years I spoke of two varieties of tlie 
Hubbard, a green and a blue kind. On testing the blue 
variety by itself, I found it bad the characteristic of all 
hybrids, a tendency to sport. For this reason, of late 
years I have endeavored to throw it entirely out of cul- 
tivation in my seed stock. 

After the Hubbard squash became somewhat noted, a 
communication occasionally appeared in the Press claiming 
that it was but an old variety revived. After giving all 
these claims, including those made to me personally by 
private correspondence, a fair examination, I am persuaded 
that the Hubbard is not an old variety revived, and that 
until it was sent out from Marblehead, with the exception 
of such cases as could be traced to seed distributed occa- 
sionally by me during the course of few years previous, it 
it was unkown in the United States. In my endeavors to 
trace its origin, the nearest I have come to it was in a 
variety of squash procured from one of the West India 
Islands, which had many characteristics in common with 
the Hubbard, though the shells of the squash were uni- 
formly blue in color, and its quality was somewhat inferior. 

Several claimed that it was but the Sweet Potato squash 
revived. I have raised a squash called by that name my- 
self, and have seen two or more other lots that were raised 
by friends, from seed procured in .different sections of the 
United States, and never saw one yet that resembled the 
green Hubbard. 

The apparent connection between the Sweet Potato and 
Hubbard squash, I am convinced, has been made through 
the blue variety, which, when without a shell, has a close 
resemblance to some of those kinds that go under the 
name of " Sweet Potato" squash. 

American Turl)aii Squash,— I have given the prefix 
American Turban Squash, to distinguish it from the French 
Turban, with which many seedsmen have confounded it. 
The French Turban is the most beautiful in color, and the 




SQUASHES, now TO GROW THEM, ETC. 47 

most worthless in quality of all the varieties of squash 
that have come to my notice. Kearly flat in shape, grow- 
ing to weigh ten to twenty pounds, it has a large promi- 
nence at the calyx, and shaped 
like a flattened acorn ; this is 
elegantly quartered, with a 
button in the middle, and is 
most beautifully striped with 
white and a bright grass green, 
while a setting of bead work 
surrounds it. The body of 
the squash is of the richest 
orange color. In quality the 
\Mn:i. XN TiKLVN -. vH[ French Turban is coarse, 
watery, and insipid. 

The American Turban is, without doubt, a combination 
of the Hubbard, Autumnal Marrow, Acorn, and French 
Turban, and the finest achievement that has as yet been ob- 
tained by hybridization. Like all hybrids it tends to sport, 
and varies somewhat in quality, so that while most of the 
squashes are of first quality, some will be found that are 
inferior; yet, with such parents as the Hubbard, Acorn, 
and the Autumnal Marrow (when we recall its early excel- 
lence), we might expect to find a superior squash, and in 
the average quality of the Turban we shall not be disap- 
pointed, for in dryness, fineness of grain, sweetness, deli- 
cacy of flavor, and richness of color, when fully ripened, 
it cannot be surpassed. Like the Hubbard, it is edible before 
it is fully ripe, either of these varieties, particularly the 
Hubbard, being superior for table use when unripe to any of 
the varieties of summer squashes. The form of the body of 
the squash is nearly cylindrical, the two diameters being 
usually in the proportion of three to five, while it is more 
or less flat at both the stem and calyx ends. At the calyx 
end there is usually more or less prominent an acorn. 
This may be very clearly defined, standing out very 



48 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

prominently from the body of the squash, or it may be 
very mncb flattened and sunk within the body, with the 
acorn barely traceable. In degree of prominence the 
acorn sports greatly, for on squashes growing on the same 
Tine, I have found in one specimen the acorn projecting 
very prominently, and very fully developed, while on a 
pecond specimen it could only be traced in a rudimentary 
form. It is not desirable that the acorn should be promi- 
nent, as the seed extends into it at the calyx end of the 
squash where the meat is very thin, and if the acorn is 
very prominent, a slight bruise will injure it and cause 
the squash to rot. For this reason I have selected seed 
squashes for the last two or three years from those in 
which the acorn was not very prominently displayed, en- 
deavoring to produce a type in which it should be little 
more than rudimentary. 

Some writers on vegetables treat the American Turban 
squash as but an improved form of the French Turban, 
whereas it is a distinct variety. It is indebted to the 
French Turban for nothing more than the principal fea- 
tures of its form, getting its quality, keeping properties, 
color and fineness of grain from its other parent. As the 
American Turban is the result of hybridization, there is 
more or less of variety in the shape and color of the crop, 
and this will continue to be so unless by long and close 
cultivation of a particular type, sufficient individuality 
shall be acquired by this one type to stamp the entire crop. 
Though it may be a very pleasing thing to the eye to see 
every specimen alike, yet I consider it too great a risk to 
cultivate a hybrid squash for this end ; for who knows 
what characteristics each parent has contributed or how 
much these are afiected by each other in combination ? 
Until these points are deter mined, there is danger, lest in 
continued selections of a given type some good traits 
should be eliminated. 

We know that in some way the original excellence of 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 49 

the Autumnal Marrow squash has been lost, and no one 
can, for a certainty, tell when or how this disappeared, and 
though originally an admixture of other sorts was doubt- 
less the first step towards this deterioration, yet we are 
inclined to beheve that a tendency to give prominency 
and individuality to the original admixture, has gradually 
borne under the good traits of the original Marrow. 

Autumnal Marrow Squash. — This is also known as the 
Boston Marrow, or Marrow, it having been a very promi- 
nent squash in the markets of Boston for a series of years. 
A mongrel early variety of it is also known as the " Cam- 
bridge Marrow." This squash was introduced to the 
public by Mr. J. M. Ives, in the years 1831-2. When in- 




AUTFMNAL MARROW SQUASH, 

troduced, it was a small sized squash, weighing five or six 
pounds, fine grained and dry, with an excellent flavor. 
Marketmen found that by crossing with the African and 
South American varieties, they could increase the size of 
the original Marrow; they did this without troubling 
themselves about any risk of deteriorating the quality, 
and I doubt not that much of the present inferior quality 
of the Marrow squash is due to this vicious crossing. In 
form the Marrow is much like the Hubbard, but with less 
distinctive prominence in the neck and calyx. In color, 
the Marrow is between a lemon yellow and a rich orange; 
3 



50 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEif, ETC. 

the skin is covered with fine indentations, giving it a pock- 
marked appearance. The body of the sqnash is divided 
into sections by slight depressions in its longest di- 
ameter. Under the sthin outer skin, or epidermis, is a 
thicker skin of a dark orange color. The flesh is orange 
colored. The seeds are somewhat larger and thicker than 
in the Hubbard, and considerably larger but not so thick 
as in the Turban. In quahty the Marrow of to-day varies 
much ; sometimes we find specimens that are all that can 
be desired, particularly as we get near to the original 
type, (this has been kept more nearly correct in Marble- 
head than elsewhere), but in its general character the 
Autumnal Marrow is watery, not sweet, and oftentimes 
deficient in flavor and fineness of texture. From its 
great productiveness, it is a favorite squash with market- 
men, and its rich orange color and handsome form render 
it popular with those who have not become acquainted 
with the more recently introduced and finer varieties. 
There are two varieties grown extensively for Boston mar- 
ket known as the Cambridge Marrow. One of these is 
quite large in size, usually having the green color at the 
calyx, indicating a mongrel variety ; the other is of me- 
dium size, and is characterized by a brilliant orange 
color, that makes it very attractive to the eye. Both of 
them mature a little earlier than the purer sort. 

These three varieties of fleshy stemmed squashes, the 
Hubbard, American Turban, and Autumnal Marrow, in- 
clude most of those raised for market purposes. There is 
a large number of other varieties, such as the Valparaiso, 
African, Honolulu, Cocoa-nut, Sweet Potato, etc., some of 
which have quite distinct characteristics, that are more 
or less raised in the family garden, but several of them 
are of inferior quality, some are hybrid, and though one 
or two may be desirable for the garden, yet none of them, 
as far as I have made acquaintance with them, have char- 
acteristics which would invite their general cultivation. 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 51 

In that excellent work by my friend, Fearing Burr, 
" The Field and Garden Vegetables of America," will be 
found quite a list of summer, fall and winter varieties. I 
am often in receipt of varieties of high local repute in dif- 
ferent sections of the country, and it is possible tbat some 
of tbem when tested may prove worthy of general culti- 
vation. 

Passing to the hard or woody stemmed varieties, we 
find included among them the Winter Crookneck, the 
Canada Crookneck, Yokohama, and Para. 

The Crooknecks had their day and generation before the 
introduction of the soft-stemmed varieties. They were then 
the standard sorts, and the kitchens of thrifty farmers were 
adorned with choice specimens hanging suspended around 
the walls by strips of list, to be used during the winter, 
in the course of the spring, and even well into the sum- 
mer months. The Crooknecks are characterized by long, 
usually curved necks, terminating in a bulb-like prominence 
at the calyx end, which contains the seed. The vines are 
covered with rough spines, and in the shortness of their 
leaf-stalks, the smaller size and different color of the leaves, 
are readily distinguished from the soft-stemmed sorts. 
They vary much in color at the time of the gathering, and 
there is a general tendency in all of them to change to a 
yellow hue in the course of the winter. In quality, the 
Large Winter Crookneck is coarse grained and watery, 
while the Canada Crookneck is finer grained, and at times 
quite dry and sweet. The Winter Crookneck weighs 
from ten to twenty-five pounds and upwards, and the true 
Canada Crookneck, which is rarely found pure, averages 
from four to six pounds. In keeping properties, the 
Crooknecks excel, frequently keeping in dry, warm apart- 
ments the year round, and, in a few instances, two years. 
When kept into the summer the seeds are at times found 
to have sprouted within the squash. 

The Crooknecks are subject to a kind of dry rot, par- 



52 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 




CEOOKNECK SQUASH. 



ticularly in spring, wliicli gives them a peculiar appear- 
ance when cut, the tissue between the cells having a dull, 
white color, though the fibres 
of flesh still retain their bright 
yellow color. Worthless for table 
use. The true measure of the 
length of time a squash keeps, 
is how long it keeps its quality^ 
and not its mere structure. 

The Yokobama is compara- 
tively a new visitor from Japan, 
it having been received in this 
country in the year 1860, by Mr. 
James Hogg, from his brother then residing at Yokohama 
in Japan. The vine is a very free grower and a good 
yielder, though from the comparatively small size of the 
squash, the weight of the crop is not large when com.pared 
with the Hubbard, Turban, or Marrow. It is quite flat in 
shape, with somewhat of a depression at each end. The 
diameters are to each other about as one to three or 
four. It is deeply ribbed, and the flesh, which is of a 
lemon color, is remarkably thick, making it the heaviest 
of all squashes in proportion to its size. The flesh is very 
fine grained, smooth to the taste, and has a flavor resem- 
bling the Crookneck. With those who like the taste of 
the Crookneck, the Yokohama wUl likely be very popular. 

In external color, before ripening, it is of an intensely 
dark green, covered with blisters, like a toad's back ; as 
it ripens, it begins to turn of a light brown color at both 
the stem and blossom ends, and, after storing, it soon be- 
comes entirely of a copper-like color, and is covered with 
a slight bloom. It may be well to start this squash under 
glass, on squares of turf, though, after an experience of 
three seasons, I am pursuaded that it is becoming ac- 
climated ; indeed, my crop of last season ripened with the 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 53 

Hubbard and Turban. The cultivation of tlie Yokohama 
is mostly confined, as yet, to private gardens. 

Para, or Polk Squash.^This is a half-bush squash. 
In the first stages of its growth, it has a bush habit, and 
sets its first fruit like a bush squash, but later it pushes 
out runners eight or ten feet in length, and bears fruit 
along them. The squash was brought to this country 
from Parj ii '^ ifi vi i i Ii h | "is oblong; 




PARA, OR POLK SQUASH. 

it is ribbed, of a tea-green color, excepting the portion 
which rests on the ground, which is of a rich orange 
color. The squashes weigh, about three pounds each. 
They require the whole season- to mature, and when 
in good condition, the flesh is dry and of a rich flavor. 
Like the Yokohama, I apprehend they will be very popular 
with a class, rather than with the community at large. 
Both the Yokohama and the Para can be kept well into 
the winter. I have kept a Yokohama, crossed on the 
Turban, fourteen months, and Hubbards, in two instances, 
twelve months. 

THE SUMMER SQUASHES. 

The remarks made relative to the cultivation of the fall 
and winter varieties, will apply to the cultivation of the 
summer squashes, with the exception of the distance be- 
tween the hills ; this, as they are of a bushy habit, should 
be about five feet. In quality, the summer squashes have 
but little to recommend them ; it is principally their fresh, 
new taste that makes them acceptable for the table. South 
of New York, the cultivation of squashes is confined al- 



54 SQUASHES, now TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

most wholly to the bush varieties. Until recently, the 
N^ew York market, for fall and winter squashes has been 
supplied largely by the growers around Boston. 

I find that there is a strong belief among prominent 
seedsmen in the Middle States, that the running varieties 
of squashes will not succeed in their section — they will 
not form the thick, fleshy root, they say. We, in the 
North, have always looked upon the squash as a half 
tropical fruit, and anticipated finding greater and greater 
'success in its cultivation, the farther South it was planted. 
It has all the characteristics of a semi-tropical plant, like 
the tomato and melon, and should it be true that there is 
such a climacteric limitation, it would be a marked excep- 
tion to a general law. I presume a canvass of my cor- 
respondence would settle the question, and regret that I 
have not time to do this ; yet I have but little doubt that, 
under proper culture in the South, our running varieties 
would do as well, or better, than they do North. It oc- 
curs to me, at this moment, that Dr. Phillips, the enter- 
prising editor of the Southern Farmer, stated to me, in 
the course of correspondence, that he had raised them by 
the acre in Mississippi with complete success. 

The standard summer varietie^s are the Yellow and 

White Bush Scollop, often 
called Pattypan or Cym- 
bals, and the Summer 
Crookneck. Of these the 
Summer Crookneck is the 
best. All of these form a 
shell as they ripen, and are 
then unfit for the table. 
They should not be cooked 

WHITE-BUSH SCOLLOPED SQUASH. ^ i in i r ij_ i 

after the shell can be felt by 
the thumb-nail. The Green Striped Bergen is an early 
variety, quite popular in the markets of New York. A 
small squash, about twice the size of a large orange, some- 




SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 55 

what fluted, called Sweet Potato Squash, is highly prized 
by some who are of high repute among squash fanciers. 
Several of the varieties that are grown as gourds, for 
ornamental purposes, are edible, a large jiroportion of 
them, indeed, as I have found on testing the largest of my 
specimens before feeding to the pigs. As a general rule, 
all that are not bitter to the taste are edible. 

The Vegetable Marrow is about the only variety of the 
squash family cultivated by our English cousins. With, 
them, it is brought to the table in the same style as our 
own varieties, or so cooked as to form part of a soup. 

A friend, who resided some years in England, informed 
me that one of the greatest novelties to an English eye 
was ^n Autumnal Marrow Squash, which he kept as a 
center piece on his marble table for a month or more. 

The Custard Squash, one of the hard stemmed sorts, of 
a yellowish cream color, oblong in shape, deeply ribbed, 
weighing from twelve to twenty pounds, is quite a favorite. 

ENEMIES OF THE VINE. 

The insect enemies are the striped bug {Galeruca 
vittata)^ or pumpkin bug {Coreus tristis), and the insect 
that produces the squash maggot. The striped bug ap- 
pears about the first of June, and several broods being 
hatched in the course of the summer, they continue their 
depredations throughout the season. After the vines 
have pushed their runners two or three feet, their vigor 
is such that the after depredations of this little iiicect is 
of no practical importance — with the exception of injury 
occasionally done to immature squashes, the upper sur- 
face of which are sometimes found covered with them, and 
hundreds of little cell like holes are eaten out. The injury 
done by the striped bug is mostly confined to the period 
in the growth of the vine between its first appearance 
above the ground and the formation of the fifth leaf. They 



56 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

feed on both the upper and under surface of tho leaf, and, 
sucking its juices, soon reduce it to a dry, dead net-work. 
The eating of the seed leaves of the plant, the two leaves 
which first appear, is not always fatal, provided the leaf 
that starts from between them is uninjured ; if this, how- 
ever, is eaten out, for all practical purposes the plant is de- 
stroyed, and should be pulled up and thrown away, no 
matter if the seed leaves are wholly uninjured. In those lo- 
calities where the striped bug is ngt very prevalent, the 
greatest harm of its ravages is sometimes prevented by 
planting the seed about the tenth of May, should the 
weather permit, w^hich will enable the vines to get so far 
along as usually to be beyond the reach of serious in- 
jury. The preventives to the ravages of this little insect, 
which attacks the whole vine family, including cucumbers 
and melons, are numerous. They may nearly all be 
brought under two classes : those which act mechanically, 
by covering the leaves so as to make them inaccessible to 
its punctures, and those which repel the insect by their 
disagreeable odors or pungent flavor. The best protectors 
of the first class are hand glasses, little frame-works 
covered with millinet or some very coarse cotton cloth, 
or, as this insect usually flies but a few inches above the 
surface of the earth, any box, circular or square, 
from which the bottom has been removed, having 
sides about ten inches in height. The remedies of 
the second class are those which are principally relied 
on where squashes are cultivated on a large scale. These 
should be applied early in the morning when the dew is 
on, or directly after a rain, when the leaves are wet, that 
they may adhere. In using them a small fine sieve will 
be found very convenient. The best of these remedies I 
name in the order of their popularity in great squash- 
growing districts. Ground plaster, oyster-shell lime, air 
slaked lime, ashes, soot, charcoal dust, and common dust. 
Plaster and oyster-shell lime I consider of equal value, and 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 57 

the use of protectors in my own grounds is confined to 
one or the other of these. Against air slaked lime, which 
is very commonly used, there is this serious objection. 

However thoroughly it may be air-slaked, it still re- 
mains sufficiently caustic in its nature to seriously in- 
jure the leaves, causing more harm by its burning prop- 
erties than good, by preventing the ravages of the 
bug. I have seen an acre of thrifty vines entirely de- 
stroyed, through the caustic properties developed in the 
lime by a gentle shower that fell just after its appli- 
cation ; the leaves were so'burned that they rubbed to dust 
in the finger. Charcoal dust and soot not only protect 
the vines, but serve also to draw the heat of the sun, often- 
times very grateful to the young vines in the early season 
of the year.; while soot and ashes in all localities, and 
plaster and lime in some localities, as they are washed 
from the leaves by the rain, serve as a stimulating manure 
to the young plants. The advantages of plaster and oyster- 
shell lime are, that being very finely powdered, they can be 
easily dusted over the vine, while their white color has the 
advantage that it can be seen at a glance whether the leaves 
are fully covered. Common dust sounds cheap as a pro- 
tector, but the trouble of collecting and separating from 
stones that might otherwise injure the leaves, is more 
than an offset to the cost of other articles. These pro- 
tectors should be applied as soon as the young plant breaks 
ground, before it has fairly shaken off the shell of the seed, 
as the insect is often at work then, and the application 
should be renewed after every shower, the object being to 
keep every leaf entirely covered as far as practicable until 
the fifth leaf is developed, when the plants are usually be- 
yond reach of injury from this little enemy, provided the 
hills have been snj^plied with rich, stimulating manure, suf- 
ficient to give them a rapid growth. Among this class of 
remedies, watering the plants with a decoction of tobacco, 
a little kerosene oil, stirred in water while being applied, 
3* 



58 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

(the proper proportion of this had better be tested by experi- 
ment), applying water in which hen manure or guano has 
been dissolved, sprinkling the leaves with a mixture of 
wheaten flour and red pepper, or snuff, or sulphur, etc., 
etc., have been found efficacious by various persons. Dr. 
Harris states that these insects fly by night as well as by 
day, and are attracted by the light of burning splinters of 
pine knots, or of staves of tar barrels. As insects breathe 
through pores in their bodies, such strong ammoniacal odors 
as are given off from a liquid in which hen manure, 
guano, or kerosene have been mixed, must tend to suffo- 
cate and so repel them. 

As new land is much less infested with bugs than old 
land, in sections where these insects are very troublesome, 
it will be better to break up sward. 

In fighting these pests, where but few hills are cultiva- 
ted, pieces of board or shingle laid around the young 
plants, just aboTe the surface of the ground, will collect 
many on their undersides over-night, and by examining 
them early in the morning, many can be brushed off into hot 
water. I don't think much of the plan of killing them 
abont the vines ; the old saying that " when one is killed 
fifty will come to his funeral" appears to have a savor of 
truth in it, for I have noted that where I have killed them 
about the vines, there seems to be no end to the business ; 
with constant attention, still the bugs appear to be about 
as plenty as at first. I think that the odor from the dead 
ones attracts others. 

The large black bug I consider rather a pumpkin than 
a squash bug, as in this section, and in others, as far as my 
knowledge extends, where the cultivation of the pump- 
kin has been given up for a number of years, it has al- 
most entirely disappeared. Occasionally a leaf of a vine 
will be seen pretty well covered with the rascals late in the 
season, but so scarce are they that for several years past 
I have not seen, on an average, more than one a season 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM, ETC. 59 

on my vines, and I cultivate several acres annually. When 
the plants are young, they are likely to be found, if at all, 
"below the elementary leaves, sucking out the juices from 
the vine itself. For these fellows there is nothing like fin- 
ger work. I have known an instance in the interior where 
they were so numerous on Pumpkin vines planted among 
corn, that the- mere smell of them acted as an emetic to 
three separate sets of hands that attempted to hoe the 
corn patch. 

The squash maggot is hatched from the egg of an insect 
bearing a close resemblance to the lady-bug, but of a size 
considerably larger. The eggs are usually deposited near 
the root of the vine, within an inch or two of the ground ; 
and in seasons when this insect abounds, eggs are depos- 
ited at the^ unction of the leaf stalks with the vine along 
some six or eight feet of vine. As soon as the egg is 
hatched, the maggot begins to eat his way through the 
center of the vine, and his boring will be seen outside his 
hole, like those of an apple-tree borer. The vines thus at- 
tacked will wither under a mid-day sun, and the injured 
ones are thus readily detected. Squashes on such vines 
usually make but little growth, and the vines ultimately 
die. If the presence of the borer is early detected, he can 
sometimes be killed by thrusting a wire, or stout straw 
into his hole ; sometimes the vine is slit open and the in- 
truder found and killed, but vines thus treated do not 
always recover. If the slit portion is covered with earth 
and pegged down, sometimes but little injury is done. I 
have taken thirteen borers from a single vine, some of the 
largest being an eighth of an inch in diameter and an inch 
in length. 

It happens, at times, after the vines have made a vigorous 
growth of several feet, they suddenly wilt and die with- 
out any perceptible cause ; no insects are to be found on 
the leaves, there are no borers in the vines, and on exam- 
ining the roots, everything to be seen by the naked eye 



60 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THmi, ETC. 

ajDpears sound and healthy. I ana at a loss to explain the 
cause of this, unless it be that the vine has been poisoned 
by something that it has taken into its circulation. I have 
picked half-grown plums from a tree that tasted as salt as 
brine. The tree had received a heavy manuring with salt, 
and ultimately died, proving that there is such a thing in 
the vegetable world as a tree poisoning itself by feeding 
to excess on one variety of food ; and what is true of a 
tree may be true of a vine. 

WOODCHUCKS AND MITSKRATS. 

On low land, near water courses, Muskrats will some- 
times make sad havoc with the growing fruit ; while on 
uplands, the Woodchuck is sometimes exceedii^ly destruc- 
tive. If the portion troubled by muskrats is of small area, 
the squashes can be protected by taking boxes of sufficient 
size, cutting a narrow slit in their sides, and setting the 
squashes in them, having the vines enter and go out of 
the narrow slits. When muskrats begin on a squash, as 
far as I have observed, they make a finish of it before in- 
jurmg others. 

Woodchucks are exceedingly destructive ; they rarely 
entirely devour a squash, but gnaw more or less all in the 
vicinity of their burrows. If these burrows are not con- 
veniently near the squash j^atch, they will leave the old 
and make new ones close by, or even in the midst of the 
squash field. The wounds made by their broad teeth soon 
heal, if the squashes have not reached their growth, and 
the gnawing has not been through the squash, but the 
crop is much injured for market 23urposes, and the squashes 
are apt to rot at the gnawed j)hices after they are stored. 
I have had a ton injured in this way one season by a sin- 
gle woodchuck. A tbousand-and-one ways are given to 
catch and destroy the woodchucks ; traps set a little way 
down in their holes, and carefully hidden with earth, and 



I 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC 61 

apples containing arsenic, rolled into their burrows, are 
among those that have proved successful. It is worth 
while to offer five dollars for the skin of a woodchuck that 
lias commenced depredations in a squash, field. 

SAYING SEED. 

In selecting squashes for stock seed, take, while the 
squashes are in the field, or immediately after they are 
gathered, neither the largest nor the smallest specimens. 
The largest specimens are very tempting, particularly so 
if they have the true form, appear to be well ripened, and, 
if Hubbards, have a hard shell ; but experience has proved 
that these, as a class, are most likely to be of impure 
blood. About a year ago two of my neighbors, who had 
become famous for their large Hubbard squashes, came to 
me to get a new stock of seed to start from ; they stated 
that within a few years a large proportion of their squashes 
grew soft-shelled. JSTow, as they had made it a rule to se- 
lect the largest specimens for seed, I have no doubt but 
that the admixture that was evident, from the loss of the 
hard shell characteristic of the true Hubbard, had crept in 
that way. Every old squash grower is aware of the great 
change that has come over the Autumnal Marrow squash. 
When introduced, it w^as of snaall size, weighing about five 
or six pounds, exceedingly dry, fine grained, and rich 
flavored. Now its quality is uncertain, for the most part 
greatly deteriorated below the original standard, but it 
grows to double the average size of the original squash. I 
have not the slightest doubt but this deterioration is due 
to the vicious practice of saving seed stock from the largest 
specimens grown, these specimens having got their extra 
size from larger and coarser varieties of the African or 
South American type. If any one has doubts of this theory, 
he can easily satisfy himself by examining the calyx end of 
a crop of the largest sized variety of Marrow squashes, 



62 SQUASHES, now TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

when he will find a proportion of them with the green 
color stolen from the African or South American family. 

Having decided on medium sized specimens for seed 
stock, select those that are most strongly marked exter- 
nally with the characteristics of the variety. If a Hub- 
bard, it should be very thick and hard shelled, of a dark 
green color, and the rougher and more nubbed the better. 
Let it have a good neck and calyx end, and be as heavy 
in proportion to its size as possible. The stem of both 
tills and the Marrow squash should stand at quite an 
angle with the squash, and have a depression where it 
joins, as this indicates an early ripened specimen. The 
flesh should be hard, fine grained and thick, and not 
stringy on the inside. See to it that the squash swells 
out to a fair degree in the middle, and has an average 
proportion of seed. Having selected such specimens 
as these, bring them to the final test of the dinner table, 
and reject every one that does not there show all the char- 
acteristics of dryness, flavor, and fineness, that belong to a 
first-rate specimen. 

I know that the injunction to select specimens that 
swell out to a fair degree in the middle, is contrary to the 
course pursued by most farmers ; yet I advise it on the 
ground that such squashes, having a good quantity of seed, 
have superior vitality and individuality, and are nearer na- 
ture's ideal of perfection in the animal and vegetable king- 
dom, being better able to maintain the species. 

I have seen the working of this law most conspicuously 
in the Crookneck family of squashes. The cultivator's 
type of a fine market squash is one with as large a neck 
and as small a seed end as possible. Following out this 
idea, they select for seed, specimens with a small seed end, 
and the result, as far as I have observed, has been that the 
squash, in the course of a few years, has deteriorated and 
become worthless. 



ETC. 63 

When to Take Out the Seed.— We have advised 
that the specimens for seed purposes be selected early 
in the season, because later, particularly when they 
have been exposed to a high degree of heat, the color 
becomes so changed that the work of selection becomes 
far more difficult. The next question to discuss is, 
when shall we seed them ? . Contrary to the generally 
received opinion, the seed is not ripe when the squash is — in 
other words, after the squash has completed its growth, 
the vines dying naturally and the stem being dead and 
hardened, still the seeds are not fully matured till some- 
time after the squash is stored. The length of time will 
vary with the season, it being longer in a wet season and 
shorter in a dry one, the two extremes being from one to 
three months. If seeds are taken out as soon as the squash 
is gathered, though at the time they present a very plump 
appearance, yet if they are examined after they are dry, a 
large proportion will be found to be plump only on one 
side, most of them to be ^twisted, and not a few of them 
entirely wanting iii meat. When seeding large lots for 
market, I have found the percentage of loss in the weight 
of the seed quite an important matter, it being as high as 
one-fifth. After the squash is gathered, the process of 
ripening the seed goes on until the entrails are absorbed, 
or eaten up by the seed, and the seed continue to increase 
in plumpness and weight until their entrails are so far con- 
sumed that only so much remains as is necessary to hold 
together the seed structure. This final ripeness is indicated 
by the seed compartments in the squash becoming dis- 
tinct, and the attachments peeling off like the skin from 
an orange. If, when the squash is opened, the seed are em- 
bedded in a hard, dense mass of growth within, that 
does not readily separate from the squash, they will be 
twice as hard to clean, and will weigh full twenty per 
cent, short of the weight of well ripened seed when cleaned. 
The seed is cleaned from the intestines by being either 



64 SQUASHES, HO:^ TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

squeezed out or washed out. If squeezed out, it will dry- 
sooner, and when rubbed and winnowed when dry will 
have a more velvety look than when washed. Where a 
large quantity is to be handled, it is cleaned more quickly 
by washing than by rubbing, but it requires to be dried 
upon a comparatively clean surface ; whereas rubbed seed 
can be dried upon any surface, no matter how dirty, as 
the refuse squash that remains adhering to it effectually 
protects it from all injury. Washed seed should not be 
spread over one deep, and squeezed seed not over one and 
a half deep ; each should be stirred after the second day. 
If washed seed is stirred earlier, it is apt to be injured by 
the tearing of the epidermis, which, for the first day or 
two, adheres strongly to the surface it is spread on. The 
temperature for drying seed should not be over about one 
hundred degress, and better less than higher. N'ever dry 
seed in an oven^ or very near a stove. The upper shelf 
of a kitchen closet, or a plate on the mantle piece, not too 
near the stove funnel, are eac^ of them handy, though 
housewives will sometimes say they are not suitable 
places — if mice are apt to gnaw the seed in the closet, 
or children to see them on the mantle, for a certainty I will 
not dis23ute them. When the quantity to be cleaned is 
small, the sooner it is attended to, after the entrails have 
been removed from the squash, the brighter the seed will 
look; but if the quantity is large, by letting the mass stand 
one or two days, until fermentation begins and the entrails 
are partly decayed, the seed can be -cleaned with far greater 
expedition. Much care and some experience is requisite 
to determine how far fermentation can be allowed to ad- 
vance. As a general rule, if, on thrusting the hand into 
the middle of the mass, it feels milk warm, it should be at 
once mixed well together, and the whole be washed out 
within six hours. The great danger in permitting fer- 
mentation to advance too far is losing the Avhite, ivory-like 
epidermis of the seed, thus destroying much of their beauty, 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 65 

and lowering their value for market purposes. In washing 
the seed, the water used may be made about milk warm, and 
so soon as they have been squeezed out of the entrails, 
skim them off the surface, dropping them into a sieve 
about as coarse as a common coal sieve ; when this is nearly 
full, dash over them a couple of buckets of water, giving 
them immediately a quick shaking, which will tend to 
work out through the meshes fragments of the entrails that 
were taken out with them. If the hand is thrust into a 
mass of freshly washed seed, it will collect a good many 
pieces of the entrails. After pouring the water on the 
seed, incline the sieve at a sharp angle, in order to drain 
off the water. After they are well drained, pour them 
out on a large piece of soft cotton cloth, and rub and 
roll them well to absorb as much of the moisture as possi- 
ble. Now spread as above directed. Two good hands, 
with seed in the right state, will sometimes wash out not 
far from one hundred pounds of seed in a day. 

When are Squash Seed Sufficiently Dry I— It took me a 
couple of years to learn a very simple rule by which this 
can be infallibly determined ; meanwhile I suffered a great 
deal of anxiety, took a great deal of extra care, (I got out 
twenty-six hundred pounds of squash seed one season,) and 
yet after all had a feeling of uncertainty in the premises. 
The ordinary way is to call squash seed dry when the en- 
veloping skin has separated from the seed, and the seed 
itself is much contracted' and has a dty look. If the tem- 
perature to which it has been exposed is quite low, 
this is a pretty safe guide, but if it has been dried at a 
somewhat high temperature — ^though the seeds may rustle 
with quite a dry sound when handled, yet a23pearance 
is a very deceitful guide — and if such seed are packed 
in barrels, they will be very likely to sweat, and when 
turned out, come out in caked masses, and if left together, 
will soon become musty. Squash seed, to be really dry, 



66 SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 

must "be so in the meat as well as in the shell, and this 
can be in a moment determined by endeavoring to bend 
them. If they are pliable, they are not yet sufficiently 
dry; if they snap instead of bending, they can be safely 
stored for future use. 

How loag will Squash Seed keep their Vitality ]— Squash 
seed, like all other seed, are best kept in a cool place, 
where the air is dry and the temperature is as even as pos- 
sible. I have found that of the same lot of seed, those which 
were kept in an open bag did not retain their vitality as 
long by a year as those which were kept in the same bag, 
but put up in paper packages. 

I have known squash seed to be fairly good at six years 
old, and again to be worthless when but three years old, 
and with no perceptible difiference in the getting out and 
method of keeping of the two lots. I would lay down 
the rule to always test squash seed before planting, if it 
be over two years old. This can be easily done by putting 
a few in a cup, with water sufficient to swell them, covering 
them with some cotton wool, to prevent evaporation, and 
placing the cup where the heat is gentle, near the stove 
or on the upper shelf of a closet. 

If the oil that enters into the composition of the meat 
of the squash seed has become rancid, the vegetative power 
of the seed is destroyed. This is easily determined by 
breaking the seed, when the meat will be of a dark color, 
and have a rancid taste. Under, such circumstances, the 
shell of the spoiled seed will be usually darker colored than 
that of good seed. In a lot of seed saved at the same time, 
a portion will be spoiled, while the remainder will readily 
vegetate, and some that to the eye and taste appear to be 
perfectly sound, will prove to be utterly worthless. The 
cause of the difference in either case I do not know. 

The proportion of seed and entrails of squashes to their 
entire weight is less than is generally supposed. By tests, 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GSOW THEM, ETC. 67 

applied towards the close of February, a few years ago, I 
found that the weight of seed and entrails to the entire 
squash, in the Turban, was as 65 to 1000 ; and, m the Hub- 
bard, as 55 to 1000. At that date the entrails had less 
weight than they would have shown earlier in the season. 

INSTINCTS AND HABITS OF SQUASH VINES. 

It seems hardly fitting to close this treatise without 
alluding to something higher than the mere pecuniary or 
culinary value of the squash family. In common with all 
the vegetable world, it has instincts which are both 
curious and wonderful. How singular it is that roots have 
power to push through the soil directly to the spot where 
the best food is found, descending, if necessary, below tha 
plane of growth, or ascending above it to the very surface 
and developing a perfect mist of rootlets to catch up the 
decaying particles found under a small heap of rubbish ! 
Still more wonderful are some of the instincts of the vine 
itself. Each tendril stretches out to catch hold of, and fasten 
to something by which it can support the vine, and rarely, 
if ever, will it make the mistake of catching hold of any 
but the best supporter within reach. Yet more and higher 
even than this is the instinct they develop. They not only 
reach out for a support, and make selection of the object to 
which to cling, but they will vary the direction of their 
growth through quite a number of degrees in pursuit of 
the particular object they have selected. To see this 
wonderful phenomenon in its most striking aspect, select a 
vine of some one of the mammoth varieties, under cir- 
cumstances in which its most vigorous growth will be 
developed. Let every stick, w^eed, or the like, be removed 
from the vicinity of the main runner, and then thrust firmly 
into the ground a slip of shingle, not over half an inch 
wide, on one side of the vine, a few inches beyond the out- 
stretched tendril that is always found near the extremity, 



68 SQUASHES, HOW TO GROW THEM ETC. 

noting with care at the same time the direction in 
which tlie extremity of the vine points. Within t\venty- 
four hours it will be found that the vine has turned 
from its former course, towards the side on which the 
shingle is placed, while the tendril has turned towards the 
shingle and perhaps found and grasped it ! In proof that 
this is no mere chance event, let the slip of shingle be now 
removed, and placed in the same relation to the vine as 
before, but on the opposite side. Within twenty-four 
hours the vine will be found to have turned from its former 
course and to be inclined towards the side on which the 
shingle is placed, while the tendril on that side has shown 
a corresponding instinct. Then study the tendril. It is 
most admirably adapted for its office ; it is usually a com- 
pound spiral, one-half of it winding to the right and the 
other half of it to the left, thus combining the greatest 
strength with the greatest possible elasticity. As another 
illustration of its wonderful instincts, I have seen a squash 
vine run about ten feet along tlie surface of the ground, 
keeping its extremity within a few inches of the surface, 
until it passed under the projecting limb of a pear tree, 
which was about four feet above the surface of the earth ; 
here it stretched up almost vertically towards the tree, 
until it had almost reached it, when, not having suf- 
ficient stamina to support it to a further effort, it fell 
over towards the ground, forming an arch. It imme- 
diately turned up with a second effort to reach the tree, 
made a second failure and formed a second arch, and with 
still another failure a third arch, by which time the ex- 
tremity had passed oat from under the tree, when it kept 
on its horizontal growth the same as before it hadreaehed 
the tree ! Such instincts are wonderful. How did the vine 
know the tree was above it, or that the slip of shingle was 
at either the right or left of it ? 

During the best growing weather the growth of the 
vine is very rapid. I have found, by actual measurement, 



I 



SQUASHES, HOW TO GEOW THEM, ETC. 69 

that a vine of the mammoth variety grew above fourteen 
inches in twenty-four hours. Sometimes, during a season 
of drouth, a surprising tenacity of life is displayed. I well 
remember one piece of vines growing on a shallow spot 
above a ledge, where, during a season of severe drouth, I 
could find nothing but earth as dry as dust, close down to 
the ledge ; yet these vines, for more than a week, would 
wilt and apparently dry up each day, to renew themselves 
with the dews over night. I hav.e very rarely (and I have 
often examined them for this,) found the tendrils of the 
squash vine seizing on the Apple of Peru, (Stramonium,) a 
large weed quite common near the sea shore, of disagree- 
able odor and poisonous in its nature, when taken inter- 
nally. Now, the Apple of Peru is very common in our 
squash fields^ and presents the most stable support of all the 
weeds of the field. Then why this apparent antipathy ? 

I have endeavored to make my little treatise as complete 
a manual as possible. If, from the directions given, so de- 
licious a vegetable as the squash shall be more generally 
and more successfully cultivated, I shall be well pleased. 



THE 



SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST, 



BY 



ANDKEW S. FULLER. 
• BeatitifuUy Illustrated, 

We have heretofore had no work especially devoted to small 
fruits, and certainly no treatises anywhere that give the information 
contained in this. It is to the advantage of special works that the 
author can say all that he has to say on any subject, and not be 
restricted as to space, as he must be in those works that cover the 
culture of all fruits — great apd small. 

This book covers the whole ground of Propagating Small Fruits, 
their Culture, Varieties, Packing for Market, etc. While very full on 
the other fruits, the Currants and Raspberries have been more care- 
fully elaborated than ever before, and in this important part of his 
book, the author has had the invaluable counsel of Charles Downing. 
The chapter on gathering and packing the fruit is a valuable one, 
and in it are figured all the baskets and boxes now in common use. 
The book is very finely and thoroughly illustrated, and makes an 
admirable companion to the Grape Culturist, by the same author. 



COIN'T'EIN'TS: 



Chap. I. 
Chap. II. 
Chap. IIL 
Chap. IY. 
Chap. V. 
CtiAP. YI. 



Baiibeiirt. 

StRA WHERRY. 

Raspberry. 
Blackberry. 
Dwarf Cherry. 
Currant. 



Chap. YII. Gooseberry. 
Chap. YIII. Coristelian Cherry. 
Chap. IX. Cranberry. 
Chap. X. Huckleberry. 
Chap. XL Sheperdia. 
Chap. XII. Preparation for 

GATHERING FrUIT. 



Sent post-paid. Price $1.50. 



O^ANCE JUDD & CO., 41 PARK ROW. 






3> ^:e 



r::^: V 



II 



■^^s»m^ 






wmi. 






^^77ji^ 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDDmibHTll 




mmmfm 



§im^^'^* 



ht tj 



V'* 4C 



A 4 






'i^y 



'^^ 









% 



wm 



